Talk:State/Texas/1984

The link in the edit summary is asking me to log in, so I'm just curious if the source article can be copy-pasted here. If it's really an article about 1984 state - great find!!! And I can't find a private Highland Park school - does anyone know what that is? Not an accidental typo? The Highland Park High School in Dallas was a public school in 1984. Robb (talk) 20:57, 9 July 2024 (UTC)Robb

Hello! Definitely a typo--for some reason my half-awake brain assumed that omission of an ISD in the article = private school but it's totally the public hs in Dallas.

Here is the article transcribed:

Houston Post April 11, 1984

Texas’ brightest show their smarts Lynn Ashby

DALLAS - “covering plant and animal cell structure, the transfer of information by cells, human genetics, anatomy and physiology …”

One by one, the students come forward. They are shy, smiling, immensely proud. There is ap plause as they line up so presenters may place over their heads and around their necks ribbons of red, white and blue. The ribbons hold enormous round medals. Bronze for third place, silver for second and gold for first.

The event itself gets a gold medal, since It is a first.

This is a ballroom in a Dallas hotel, and filing onto the stage are the best and the brightest of young Texas. These are high school students who have spent all of the day competing in the 1984 Texas Academic Decathlon.

You have never heard of this event, which is not unusual, since you are always the last to get the word. So I shall explain.

It is simply a competition of the mind, much Ilke the competition of the brain. With a severe testing, and awards for the winners.

The Academic Decathion began in Orange County, Call., back in 1968, so it is not exactly new. Eleven years later, in 1979, the competition went statewide. In 1982, it went nationwide, and last year it brought in contestants from 25 states, Mexico and Canada. Now teams in New Zealand and Japan are gearing up.

Texas, alas, is just getting with the program. It fell to my alma mater, Highland Park High School, and its superintendent, Dr. Winston C. Power Jr., to get the ball rolling.

It rolled to Dallas, to this place, where schools from all over Texas came to take part. A good many more schools were not real sure just what was golng on, and sent observers, who now are sitting out there thinking: "We can do better than that."

Perhaps they can, but their troops should be good. For it is a fine testing of the mind across the board: Major economic issues of 1983, understanding the elements of music (texture, tempo, timbre), the endocrine system, math, interviews, a five-minute speech, the New Deal, abstract expressionism.

You are, no doubt, saying to yourself just what I was saying: "Here we go again, a bunch of weird eggheads engaged in self-congratula-thons." Wrong, Chico. The competition is divided Into three categories: For A students, B students and - my people - C students.

And here's to the winners, boys and girls, y black and white, tall and short. Finally getting a little recognition for being very good. Medals, and money, too. I am handing out a total of 836,000 In college scholarships. The smiles of the students are exceeded only by the delight of the parents.

There are a number of Individual winners who get $1,000 scholarships, but the team winner is Pearce High School of Richardson, just north of Dallas. Each team member (there are six to a team) also gets a $4,000 scholarship. Second place is Memorial High School of Spring Branch. Third place is Highland Park. Fourth was Klein Forest, which is out near the Houston Intercontinental Airport.

The winner, Pearce, goes to the national finals in Los Angeles on April 25, to show the rest of the world that us in Texas can read and write and cipher some.

As for the others, there is always next year. So get busy, lift that participle, tote that linear equation, get a little smart and you land in college. With a scholarship.

A link to an image of the article itself: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JUcvgeCHMZk0b3Xk9at5cppTWrLPQwoA/view?usp=sharing Seaheye (talk) 21:28, 9 July 2024 (UTC)Seaheye

Amazing find, Chi! :D TinDefacto (talk) 04:45, 10 July 2024 (UTC)