Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
also marks the southernmost extent of the territory of Nunavut. Name this bay.” Neither
boy is suckered into answering “Hudson Bay”; both know that it's James Bay.
The auditorium is silent; never before have somany people been sointerested in the wa-
terwaysofNunavut.“Youstillhaveenoughcardsthere?”asksAlex,smiling.“Yes?Good.”
Question eight. “Timiş County shares its name with a tributary ofthe Danube and is loc-
atedinthewesternpartofwhichEuropeancountry?”Thereisalongpausethistimebefore
the Sharpies begin squeaking. Is it Hungary? The finalists seem just as unsure as I am.
There's a low buzz from the spectators as the answers are revealed. “We notice that the
boys have not come up with the same response this time,” says Alex dramatically. Arjun's
card says “Hungary,” which was my guess. Eric has written “Romania.”
Arjun is staring up at Alex as if he were about to impart some secret religious truth; Eric
is staring fixedly ahead. “The country is Romania!” announces Alex. “Eric Yang, you are
the 2009 National Geography Bee champion!”
The crowd erupts in applause. Arjun shakes his head bitterly into the palm of his right
hand. “What a final!” marvels Alex. “What a final. Yes indeed.” Eric makes the smallest
fist pump I've ever seen, a matter of millimeters, and then rests his chin on one knuckle,
allowing a secretive smile to cross his face for the first time all day.
Aileen Yang is still crying fifteen minutes later, as I come up to congratulate them
through the throng of newspaper reporters hoping for a quote from the champ.
“Eric, did you know Romania?” I ask.
“It was an educated guess,” he admits. He tried to picture the terrain of central
Europe—where tributaries of the Danube were likely to arise, which way they might run.
I'm impressed. He wasn't just regurgitating place-names, as the bee's critics have claimed.
He had a very deep knowledge of the region.
“How did it feel to win?” I want to know.
“It was pretty big,” he says quietly. “A major milestone.” Understated to the last.
I didn't realize how badly I needed to meet the fifty-five bee kids until I watched them
in action. After decades of news stories about young people stymied by simple maps, I
hadgeneralized theirmessageintothisnot-unreasonable conclusion:allAmericans suckat
geography. It was therapeutic for me to see firsthand that some kids are still as map-crazy
as I was, that the future might actually be in pretty good hands. “That's what I like about
the bee, that it's the good news about education,” says Mary Lee Elden. “A lot of what you
read in the paper is so negative. We need to reward kids who are doing well in academics.
These kids aren't going to get the football trophy or the basketball trophy, but they have
something to offer the world, a lot to offer the world. And we should reward them.”
Success at the National Geographic Bee is a surprisingly accurate way to predict kids
who will go on to do extraordinary things. Anders's particle physics work at Yale is only
