Potomac residents sweep Maryland State Mathcounts

[Anonymous]

First of all, congratulations to all the kids who did well in Mathcounts. I’m sure their achievements reflect a lot of dedication and hard work, even those who consider math play. I also applaud all those who participated, regardless of their score. I’m sure that participation has benefits and ai think their effort should be commended.

Now, for the adults who have been discussing this so far, I’m afraid my thoughts are more critical. I get so sick of parents on this board trying to diminish kids - in this case it just happens to be about math.

My kids are neither Asian nor from Potomac, as they were living in Rockville while attending TPMS (nor are they male, which while it hasn’t been raised yet, is a similar and oft-referenced theme), but they both excelled mathematically. While they weren’t interested in math competitions, they certainly knew about them and had the opportunity to participate, if they wished. They had both Asian and non-Asian friends, and their friends had a wide variety of interests. Sometimes their friends inspired them to try an activity, and sometimes they just weren’t interested, which was fine. There are so many opportunities for kids in this area that they can’t possibly do everything and need to be allowed to explore their individual interests, and also to relax a little and just be a kid.

As for “parenting communities being Chinese language based”, what kind of secret Mathcounts cabal have you imagined”? I certainly don’t speak Chinese, but info about the math team was disseminated (in English) along with info about all the other school clubs and teams, and during PTA sponsored activities, they were actively trying to recruit (in English) everyone who showed the slightest interest (regardless of race). Maybe your kid just isn’t interested and so didn’t see any point of telling you about an activity they don’t want to do (no judgement - as I said before, my kids weren’t interested either). If it matters to you, then I suggest you take the initiative and ask your child’s teacher what competitions are available in their subject. If that’s not enough for you, you can find a wide variety of contests on this link from the Hoagies website for gifted kids:
https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/contests.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Crown Wootton’s STEM regional program will be the best.

Yes, it will. I hope that MCPS has the good sense to leave Churchill and Wootton at Crown in the same region.

[Anonymous]

We should celebrate every child who puts in time and effort to learn math. As a country, we’re falling behind others in math education, and that gap doesn’t bode well for the future.
Blaming or singling out groups is misleading and doesn’t help address the real challenges in improving education for everyone.

[Anonymous]

I was a Mathcounts Mathlete in 1986 (still have the t-shirt!) and I just want to congratulate all the kids who participated! It's a wonderful experience, even for those who didn't "win." (Aren't we all winners when we have this much fun?) I also want to note that, the year I competed, I was the only female to finish in the top 10 in my state. My school's team was the only team to be majority female. So, let's go, ladies!

As a mom in the 21st century, I was really surprised to see how resistant moms and daughters still are to math. My own daughter competed in Mathcounts -- she was literally on the B team, but still loved it -- and the girls were definitely a minority on the team. I still see girls drifting away from math, computer science and physics as they go through puberty, and it makes me sad. These opportunities are out there for all kids, but I feel like parents often maybe don't encourage their kids enough to try things that are less common for their demographic. I really hope we are moving away from the world I grew up in, where the first speaking Barbie said "Math is hard!" "Let's go shopping!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We should celebrate every child who puts in time and effort to learn math. As a country, we’re falling behind others in math education, and that gap doesn’t bode well for the future.
Blaming or singling out groups is misleading and doesn’t help address the real challenges in improving education for everyone.

An adult is in the room! Yay! We eternally need you to just stay in here.

[Anonymous]

Congrats to these hard-working kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chime the silver spring parent coming into brag about magnet winners only to be reminded that it’s never the local kids

It's interesting that this thread opens with a brag about Potomac, then a gripe about Silver Spring parents (who have not even chimed in).

Why so tetchy? Why do these folks live rent-free in your heads when they spend 0 minutes thinking about you?

I am guessing those are parents who have longer memories; they probably have been following what has been going on in MCPS since the METIS report related changes to the magnet programs.

-- DP