Posted on 03/18/2005 10:21:25 AM PST by WBurgVACon
Last year's state champ in the National Geographic Bee won't be able to compete in this year's contest due to a little-publicized rules change, his parents said.
Matt Savage, a home-schooled seventh-grader from Francestown, had already won a school-level Bee at Great Brook School in Antrim. But after his win, officials with the Bee called and told parents Larry and Diane Savage that he couldn't go on to the state contest because of rules governing how home-schoolers can enter the event.
"We want to follow the rules, but it would have been appropriate to advertise the rules," Mrs. Savage said, adding that a well-publicized notice of the change on the Bee's Web site would have helped. "The fact it wasn't (well-advertised) meant Matt, and I'm sure other children as well, were disqualified."
Mrs. Savage said she was reluctant to go forward with her story, but she also hated the thought of other home-schooled children going through the same trouble.
"Seeing my son's heartbreak, and not being able to defend their actions other than saying, 'Life isn't fair and sometimes people change rules' — how do you explain something like that? You can't," she said.
But officials with the Bee said the rules were made quite clear, both on the Web site and on the first page of the rule book, and said the teacher administering the local event failed to notice the rules barring Matt from taking part. They also said that back in early September, they sent guidelines about student eligibility to each school taking part in the Bee.
"We're sorry this happened," said Mary Lee Elden, the National Geographic Society's director of geography competitions, "but our lawyers tell me I have to follow the same rules for everybody. If you don't, that's when a contest becomes unfair.
"It's pretty clear by the rules," Elden said, regarding the entry qualifications, "and the teacher acknowledged he didn't read it."
The National Geographic Bee is a nationwide contest for students in grades four through eight from around the country. Contests are held at the school, state and national levels, with the winner earning a $25,000 college scholarship.
Matt's disqualification had to do with a change in how home-schoolers take part in the competition. Prior to this year, the Savages said, it was possible for home-schoolers to take part by competing in local competitions held at schools, an option denied to public school students attending a school not hosting a local bee. This year, though, the rule was changed so that home-schoolers could only compete through contests which home-school associations had set up.
Elden said rules for the Bee were frequently changed between years, and this particular change simply clarified the rules governing entry requirements. Both sides agreed that those administering the local event didn't pick up on the rule.
"We're trying to reach out to all different groups to make sure the kids can take part," Elden said.
Mrs. Savage said the rule was mentioned — but it was mentioned in the rule book, which they didn't have, and also on the frequently asked questions page of the Bee's Web site. According to Mrs. Savage, parents whose children had competed in the Bee before wouldn't likely check the FAQ section for information, but would have noticed a large front-page advisory.
The end result was that Matt won the local Bee, but couldn't take part in the state contest, which is scheduled to be held in Keene on April 1. As the dates for organizing a contest through a home-school association have passed, that means he's out of luck.
"There's nothing we can do," Mrs. Savage said. "We can't go back and do the alternate route."
While Matt was heartbroken at not being able to take part in this year's Bee, his parents said they pledged to do what was necessary if Matt wanted to take part in future competitions.
"If he still wants to next year, we'll find a way to compete through a home-school association," said Mr. Savage.
Sounds fair - NOT
Maybe I'm missing something, but how is it not fair?
It would have been fair, if they had not let him compete. But, once he won.....
I think you missed the fact that he won.....
Honestly, yes I did miss that fact. However, I'm not sure it changes anything. Think of it in term of election contests. If a person wins the election, but is found out to be ineligible before taking office, should they automatically get the office because they won? Or should someone be allowed to challenge their victory?
Essentially same thing here. I really do feel sorry for the kid, but, albeit unintentionally, he violated the rules.
"But officials with the Bee said the rules were made quite clear, both on the Web site and on the first page of the rule book, and said the teacher administering the local event failed to notice the rules barring Matt from taking part. They also said that back in early September, they sent guidelines about student eligibility to each school taking part in the Bee."
Looks pretty clear to me. The home-schooling parent should've read the rules, as should have the administering teacher.
Sounds like the NEA didn't want to be embarassed by their lack of ability to teach - AGAIN.
Notice that they don't want the homeschooled kids competing with non-homeschooled kids. Would that mean that they were concerned that they would only have homeschooled kids in the final competition? It would indicate even more, how in a lot of situations home-schooled kids do better that non-homeschooled kids. The NEA couldn't have that could they?
National Geographic Society has become just another advocacy journalism operation, albeit one with great visuals.
From the baby harp seal issue to global warming, "Agenda Uber Alles" is firmly in the saddle - hard to imagine a relative of A.G. Bell wouldn't be spinning in his grave over what has become of a once remarkable magazine.
Speaking of great visuals, how about a coffee cup with a cute white harp seal on it (full color, too) with SAVE SEALS over the picture. Below the picture is CLUB LIBERALS.
Only $10 as I remember. And you can't drink coffee out of a copy of National Geographic. ;-)
Bingo!
This isn't an election, it's a geography bee. Like I said, once he won, he should have been allowed to go on to the next level. To make everyone happy, they could have sent the second place kid as well. Why would "educators" want to discourage interest in education??
I too had a little problem with it being “not fair” until I realized the underlying cause for the rule change.
The National Geographic Bee has elected to restrict the competition to those who have attended a formal school.
Why?
If the sole purpose of the Bee is to identify who knows the most about geography and reward them then why restrict the competition to public school participants only?
If you want to restrict the particpatant pool in some manner then issue a series of standardized tests on subjects outside geography to weed out those who have just crammed for this particular effort.
But then, how do you react if the same sub-group, aka home schooled kids, continue to win?
How do you justify higher taxes and spending when a single parent can produced outstanding results - NATIONAL AWARAD WINNERS - without the help of “trained professional educators?”
The key here is that the internet and PC combination allows the home scholars to advance that their own rate in multiple subjects. If little Johnny needs two hours to master spelling words he gets those two hours instead of 30 minutes like everyone else. If little Johnny wants to study a subject in depth or shows a flare for a subject he can be encouraged to explore because he isn’t tied to an approved teaching plan.
Make no mistake, the rules change was designed to exclude home schoolers so the rest of the education establishment is protected.
BTW - notice the trained professional educator, the teacher involved in the local competition also missed the rules change. Why? Or better still, How?
This reminds me of local beauty pagent eligibility that was done by holding a competition in a living room.
I think it is very apparent that the homeschoolers were humiliating the public school competitions. This rule was to get the homeschoolers out of the public school competitions and segregate them into one "competition" in order to force more homeschoolers out.
If say 20 homeschoolers were able to compete against public school students and if 20 homeschoolers beat those public schoolers, there would be hell to pay. HOWEVER now those 20 students will compete against each other and thus only ONE of them will go against public students.
Seems to me that the contest holders are trying to boost the number of chances for public school students to come out on top via sheer numbers.
If anything it seems like they have enacted a quota. Only so many homeschoolers allowed to compete against an unlimited field of "poobek skwl" students.
ever notice how it does not matter if a trained professional educator has a real diploma or a fake diploma mill degree. They teach with the same competence regardless.
What seems clear is the Public Schools administrators were tired of getting their hat handed to them year-after-year hosting Bees that were often won by Home Schooled children.
So they pressed for changes in the rules so as to CLOSE the public school bees to only public school students.
If your home schooled, you must organize and compete in you OWN independant bee.
That's my read on the rule change, and I'm sticking with it!
Not according to the story which said," This year, though, the rule was changed so that home-schoolers could only compete through contests which home-school associations had set up."
Don't worry, another home-schooler will win..... AGAIN!
I'm sure that if this was a "poor (fill in the blank... gay, black, hispanic, caribbean, native American, french, teacher's kid, well connected democrat's kid) " that they would have been "given a break for the amount of effort and excellence achieved".
My 8 year old Annie prepares for this all the time. She knows so much it's amazing. She wants to do the Geography bee, and I hope she does.
So you're advocating that everyone's "happiness" should be given more weight than following the rules? Sure you're not a liberal? :-)
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