By A. David Dahmer
Next week, three Sherman Middle
School students will be off to Atlanta to represent Madison in
the national competition of the 100 Black Men African American
History Challenge Bowl, a contest for middle and high school
students in which students are quizzed on African American
history.
“The African American Challenge
Bowl is really important, because there are so many things about
African American history that aren’t covered in the regular
curriculum,” says Sherman coach Mary Helfrich. “For students to
become aware of African American contributions in the U.S. is
really important, as a matter of pride as well as knowledge. To
have an academic challenge is important, also. So often, most of
our challenges are in sports and games. It’s really cool to be
focused on something intellectual and to see kids working hard
and working together toward a goal.”
The Sherman Middle School team
— Aerial Miller, Andrew Abeyta, and Robert Weatherby — beat Toki
Middle School in a close match up to win Sherman’s first-ever
title. “They were stiff competition,” Helfrich says. “We give
Toki a lot of kudos. They were well prepared.”
Sherman has been working toward
this championship for years. Two years ago the Sherman team took
third place, and last year it took second. “We figured out how
the game was played, we learned how to play smarter, and we did
it,” says Helfrich. “We had a goal, and we met it. That was very
exciting to see the progression.”
The team will leave for Atlanta
on June 7 for Atlanta and will return June 12. The competition
will take place on June 8. Sherman will be competing against
teams from all over the nation. The 100 Black Men of Madison is
providing plane tickets, hotel accommodations, and food for the
kids.
“It’s exciting to be going to Atlanta, because they have the
Martin Luther King Jr. Center and so many important African
American things,” Helfrich says.
The Sherman team will have to
be well prepared. Not only will the competition be tougher; the
format will be more difficult, too.
“These will be multistep
questions [at the nationals],” Helfrich says. “Instead of just
asking, ‘Who was the father of the Underground Railroad?,’ it
would be that question plus, ‘When was it started? How many
slaves were carried over?’ etc. The students have to know more.”
These eighth graders have
participated in the bowl for three years. Historically, Helfrich
says, they form their teams in January to have sufficient time
to prepare for the May Challenge Bowl. “This year, because we
had three returning students, we didn’t start until the end of
February,” she said.
Helfrich has been involved with the program for four years.
“There are many extracurricular activities that our staff has
been involved in at school,” she says, commenting on how she
became involved with the Challenge Bowl. “Being academically
inclined, a tournament that had to do with history and knowledge
really struck my fancy. I’m really interested in promoting
African American history. It suited my interests really well.”
In the junior division, the
middle school students generally must know history through the
Reconstruction Period after the Civil War. In past years, they
would study the book Before the Mayflower.
“This year they added another
book, The Negro in the Making of America by Benjamin Quarles;
and for the competition the kids are expected to know both
books, complete,” Helfrich says. “There’s a lot more information
they need to know.
“But I have so much fun with the kids. They’re a lot of fun,”
adds Helfrich, a school counselor at Sherman. “We spend a lot of
time outside of school studying. They are exceptionally bright
young kids.”
The students get together to
study twice a week. “We study Wednesdays at Culver’s [Frozen
Custard] and Sundays here at school,” Weatherby says. “We go
over books and notes. It’s very rigorous and difficult. There’s
a lot of reading and studying to do. It’s very time-consuming.
We don’t know what they’re going to ask in the tournament, so we
have to be ready for anything.”
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Robert Weatherby and Aerial Miller will be leaving for
Atlanta June 7 for the National African American History
Challenge Bowl.
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Now the kids will be putting
their training into overdrive, studying five nights a week in
preparation for nationals. “We want to study hard and take down
notes and make sure that we are prepared for anything.”
Weatherby says.
“Over the years, we’ve discovered that there are certain styles
of questions and certain questions that they ask,” Helfrich
adds. “Being a repeat player really does help, because you know
how the questions are asked and you know the subject areas that
they are going to ask you about. However, at nationals, we don’t
have a clue.”
Weatherby has learned some
peculiar things in his in-depth studies of African American
history. The middle passage and the Civil War are covered in the
eighth grade curriculum, but not much more. “I didn’t know that
some African tribes would take other tribes as slaves and trade
them,” he says. “We learned about things that we wouldn’t learn
in our regular curriculum. I didn’t know specifics about how
they would sell slaves and display them at auctions. We thought
that that was very cruel.
“If I get an African American
question in regular history, I’d have an excellent chance on
getting it right, because I’ve studied and restudied the
subject,” Weatherby adds.
The students will be missing out on a class trip to the Kalahari
Resort in Wisconsin Dells, but Helfrich says the 100 Black Men
will have plenty of activities planned for the youngsters
besides the competition, including a visit to Six Flags
Amusement Park. Weatherby has set some big goals.
“Our goal is to win the whole thing. That would be awesome,” he
says. “We want to go out in our final year with a bang. We got
that through our last competition, but we’re looking for a
bigger bang.”
