Commentary by
R. Braiden Trapp
They’re going to be out there again. Our best youth, on the stage, glaring lights, pounding pulse, thoughts swirling, trying to focus, all alone.
Gutsy elementary school-aged children from all over Rio Arriba County will take the stage at Northern New Mexico College’s art center Jan. 15 to compete in this year’s spelling bee, sponsored by the Rio Grande SUN.
These students are the best of the best, having earned a berth in the competition by beating students in their own respective schools in bees last fall. Then the studying began in earnest. Approximately 35 of those top-notch students have been reviewing and memorizing words of all origins and backgrounds in preparation for the big showdown.
Parents and grandparents are rightfully proud. To be the best speller in your school is a great accomplishment, competing at the regional level even greater. How about the rest of us? Are we proud of our students, the best and brightest, as the cliché dictates?
The years we’ve been sponsoring the spelling bee, I’ve never caught a school board member from any school district in the audience. They don’t step forward to help, much less show up.
Superintendents and administrators are busy, sure. But none of them are guilty of attending a bee either. You can find most of them at a basketball game, though, regardless of the night. So their priorities are clearly personal, not school-oriented.
I continually hear people tell me the schools are awful. What is the SUN going to do about it? Many feel it’s up to us to repair failed schools to which they send their children. Those same people vote for the school board members who are dragging us down the drain and these folks won’t go out and support scholastic events like the spelling bee.
We need to support these students. Affirmation of their success is a true way to ensure future effort by other students. In the age of awarding mediocrity, patting losers on the back and awarding ribbons to last place, we’ve encouraged everyone to stop trying. These students have tried and succeeded.
Please join us tonight (1/15) in the competition to see who will go on to Albuquerque to represent us in state competition. It will inspire you, I promise.