Today I am off with my 8th grade Academic Team for an all day competition at the state level. It was hard work with hours of practice and competing to make it this far. We have had to go against schools three and four times our size. And we are a slice of America—the kids are black and Arab and Native American mixtures, with even a white guy thrown in. Three are girls, we have Protestants and Catholics and even a Muslim. And we have kicked some serious rear end to get here.
As anyone knows who hangs out with these types of kids, they are as weird as anything. Each has a distinct personality that, oddly enough, meshes with the others. To watch them play together and joke around is a strange experience if all you have seen of school teams is the dreary sameness of athletics. The jokes of the Academic Club are bizarre and most adults would not get them. They kid each other about race and religion, about being fat and thin, about habits and loves and politics—definitely no politically correct kids here. In fact, they make it a point to be as un-PC as they can. Really, they are a scream.
It is not the case that a school’s Academic Club is made up of the smartest kids with the best grades. No, the three components of a winning team are knowledge, speed and teamwork. If one is missing the kid is unsuitable for the team. These do not easily translate into the best performance in class. Academic Club type kids can be a bit quirky, sometimes bored in class and not always the most popular. But put them together and they understand immediately that they are among their own kind. Expect surprises.
Once during a practice some members of the boys’ basketball team stopped by to have a look at their school’s Academic Team. They began observing with good natured laughter at the oddities before them, but once the practice began the athletes fell quiet. To a man they had the same look upon their faces—incomprehension and amazement. One said, “How do they know all that stuff?” How indeed. And some of those athletes were ‘A’ students.
They share some things that might explain why they are as they are. Except for one girl—the sharpest among them—they come from intact families. They read a lot—constantly and everywhere—and they read some very odd things. They watch TV perhaps as much as any kid their age, but the TV they mention most is The History Channel and The Military Channel. None are particularly into computer stuff but all are addicted to Harry Potter and Twilight. None have boyfriends or girlfriends. They seem to have no vices yet are aware of the fleshy attractions of this world. And every one of these kids is perfectly comfortable talking with adults and can easily see though any sham and insincerity. Don’t even try it. Face it: They know more weird stuff than you and they are smarter than you. Deal with it.
Still, they are kids—but especially demanding and precocious ones. They need your time and they enjoy it immensely when you laugh with them. You need as well to be able to laugh at yourself. Never forget that one day these kids will run the country.
