California Teen Wins Science Competition

ABC ^ | Dec 5, 2005 | JUAN-CARLOS RODRIGUEZ

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

A 16-year-old California boy won a premier high school science competition Monday for his innovative approach to an old math problem that could help in the design of airplane wings.

Michael Viscardi, a senior from San Diego, won a $100,000 college scholarship, the top individual prize in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

Viscardi said he's been homeschooled since fifth grade, although he does take math classes at the University of California at San Diego three days a week. His father is a software engineer and his mother, who stays at home, has a Ph.D. in neuroscience, he said.

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

I'm actually kind of speechless about this story. But not really the story itself. I'm not surprised that a home schooled teen is a rising star.

Why does the lib media consider this politics? I don't get it. Maybe it's just me?

[ClearCase_guy]

NPR covered this yesterday, and I'm pretty sure they never mentioned that he was home schooled. I found it interesting that they decided that wasn't "interesting" enough to include in the story. Perhaps the Left is afraid of this phenomenon.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Why does the lib media consider this politics?

Because the story is about a child of privilege, who is using his unfair advantages to exploit minorities and women, rape the environment, and take food out of the mouths of the less fortunate, who are left behind in squalid public schools because of BushCo's insane War for Oil...

...or maybe it was just a slow news day on the Politics desk. ;)

[RoadTest]

Just when ya think this generation is lost, along comes one of these!

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Thermalseeker]

Perhaps the Left is afraid of this phenomenon.

I think the leftists are scared to death of home schooling. If this trend continues and more and more parents pull their kids from government indoctrination centers, ur, uh, I mean public schools, look for the Libs to come out in force and call for a ban on home schooling. It's for the children, after all.

[wintertime]

I keep saying my homeschooled kids are normal.

Hey! They haven't won any science fairs, national spelling or geography bees, or written a New York Times best seller.

My normal homeschoolers merely entered college at 13, 12, and 13. Two graduated with B.S. degrees in math at the age of 18. Only one has a M.S. degree in math at the age of 20.

We can forgive the oldest for being somewhat behind his siblings. He is an Olympic track athlete who is highly ranked internationally and nationally. He was only 13 courses shy of a B.S. in accounting before leaving on a church assignment in Eastern Europe at the age of 19 and returned home 2 years later completely fluent in Russian.

[murdocj]

What I always find interesting is that whenever some kids do some truly awful things and were homeschooled, that always get prominent mention. Like those two girls in that neo-nazi band "Prussian Blue"

I'd like to see some "teenager, educated by the government, robs gas station" headlines once in a while...

[wintertime]

Some leftists ( Marxists really) are pulling out the "Some homeschool children could be abused!" canard.

I respond by asking why aren't are they concerned about all children? Why are they only concerned about school-aged children?

Hey! If school prevents child abuse, obviously the government should take newborns from their mother's arms at birth. The children should be raised in government infant schools, and of course, the infant school should be staffed by NEA union workers.

[Lizavetta]

Are you bragging or being sarcastic?

[randog]

Slackers....;^)

[newfrpr04]

because... That just about covers it all. It must have been a really slow day. LOL It about the only time they cover anything worth listening to.

[Former Farmer]

Check out the results of achievement-based competition such as the National Spelling Bee and the National Geography Bee ("GeoBee"). Homeschoolers often win and sometimes sweep.
My son competed in the GeoBee in Ohio. One year six of the ten finalists, including the winner, were homeschoolers. The GeoBee actually appeared to change the questions. Most were extremely easy: for example (in the Illinois state final held in a Chicago suburb) "What midwestern metropolis is called 'The Windy City'?" A few questions were exceedingly difficult: for example, "What Caribbean island was damaged by a hurricane in 1992?" The effect was to randomly eliminate the contestants who drew the extremely hard questions. Statistically, this made it very unlikely that one of the small minority of homeschoolers could win.
Given the NEA's contempt for excellence in academics - it's elitist and lowers the self-esteem of the mediocre - there is little surprise in the poor results of government education.
Homeschooling parents, even if not extremely well educated, could hardly do worse than the massive educrat monopoly whose two priorities were aptly identified by the late liberal Senator Pat Moynihan (D-NY) as Dumbing Down and Defining Deviancy Down.

[Former Farmer]

Check out the results of achievement-based competition such as the National Spelling Bee and the National Geography Bee ("GeoBee"). Homeschoolers often win and sometimes sweep.
My son competed in the GeoBee in Ohio. One year six of the ten finalists, including the winner, were homeschoolers. The GeoBee actually appeared to change the questions. Most were extremely easy: for example (in the Illinois state final held in a Chicago suburb) "What midwestern metropolis is called 'The Windy City'?" A few questions were exceedingly difficult: for example, "What Caribbean island was damaged by a hurricane in 1992?" The effect was to randomly eliminate the contestants who drew the extremely hard questions. Statistically, this made it very unlikely that one of the small minority of homeschoolers could win.
Given the NEA's contempt for excellence in academics - it's elitist and lowers the self-esteem of the mediocre - there is little surprise in the poor results of government education.
Homeschooling parents, even if not extremely well educated, could hardly do worse than the massive educrat monopoly whose two priorities were aptly identified by the late liberal Senator Pat Moynihan (D-NY) as Dumbing Down and Defining Deviancy Down.

[Thermalseeker]

Hey! If school prevents child abuse, obviously the government should take newborns from their mother's arms at birth. The children should be raised in government infant schools, and of course, the infant school should be staffed by NEA union workers.

Yep. Marx is smiling....

Interestingly, I have a friend who teaches at the local High School. He, along with about half the teaching staff at this school, send their kids to private school over in Chattanooga, about 30 miles away. Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

I hope you keep saying your homeschooled kids are normal.

No matter how "common" today's kids become, they certainly are not "normal". See the difference? :-P

Let me guess, your kids actually use such evil words as "please" and "thank you", "sir" and "ma'am", and other such BS? :-P

It's so easy to (normally) spot homeschooled kids for the above reasons.

They haven't been indoctrinated by the liberal system.... I mean public school system.

Oh, and that your kids have not been recognized by the NY Times, i'd personally consider that a good thing. Who wants to be recognized by the NY Times?

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

LOL....

I knew someone was going to catch that.

Xinhua(the chinese news source) in fact did put it in their headline.

[Carry_Okie]

This is the fourth posting of this article. It's under various titles because the original source is AP.

Because it is difficult to search, if you'd just read the California sidebar you'd notice it.

[wintertime]

Bragging.