Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Kafue : Zambezi :: Shyok : ___________
Henrysays“Mekong,”butthecorrectansweris“Indus.”(TheShyokRiverisatributary
of the Indus, just as the Kafue River flows into the Zambezi.) There are no perfect scores
left in the group now; Benjamin might still have a chance.
There's definitely one nerd here who's way out of his league, and that's me. I figured I
wasaguywithplentyofgeoloveandquiz-showexperiencetobootunderhisbelt—surelyI
couldhangwithsixth-graders,right?Butno,twoorthreetimeseachround,I'llbestumped
by a question that a bee player will quickly answer in a confident little voice that hasn't
even changed yet. The Qizilqum Desert is in Uzbekistan! Guanabara used to be a state of
Brazil! I feel like Richard Dreyfuss, surrounded by all those superadvanced Munchkin ali-
ens at the end of
Close Encounters
.
*
After the preliminary rounds are over, there's a logjam at the top of the standings:
eleven players are competing for the last seven spots in the finals. I hurry downstairs to
the tiebreak round so I can cheer on Benjamin Salman—who has history on his side. The
Washington champ has won the National Geographic Bee more times than any other state:
five overall, one out of every four events in the bee's history. When I asked Caitlin to ex-
plain this remarkable track record, she credited the rainy weather. “Kids here are prone
to stay inside more,” she said, “and if you're inside, you might as well look at a few
maps!”—as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. Who would watch TV orplay
video games when you could look at maps?
An eager crowd has crammed into the hotel ballroom to watch the tiebreaker, wisps of
it spilling out into the hallway beyond. I'm craning my neck to try to see the players at the
front of the room as the moderator begins the first question.
“Southeast Asia's only member of OPEC, an organization of oil-producing countries,
suspended its membership last year because it had become a net importer of oil rather than
a net producer. Name this country.”
Indonesia! I know this one. I try to beam Indonesian vibes in Benjamin's direction.
After fifteen seconds, the contestants reveal the answers they've written. Benjamin wrote
“Malaysia,” eliminating himself from the finals, but he doesn't betray any disappointment,
walking stoically off the stage. But the eleven-year-old from Nevada who also missed the
question looks stricken, almost sick. He bursts into tears on the way back to his seat and
buries his head in his dad's shoulder.
This boy isn't much older than my own son, so his heartbreak is almost intolerably hard
for me to watch. All fifty-five of these kids have put untold hours of preparation into the
event. They may be the geographically brightest bulbs in the country, but that doesn't mat-
ter: fifty-four of them are going to end up bounced because they missed a question, and
they're going to remember that question for the rest of their lives. Is this really a lofty edu-
cational exercise? Isn't it more like, well, child abuse?
