To the Editor:
How can one organize the Jersey Journal’s annual science fair, then have a sudden change of plans and decide to eliminate hundreds of Hudson County elementary students from competing? Previously, all public school students in grades five through eight placing first or second in their grade earned the privilege of attending. For whatever reason, this year’s policy was suddenly changed. Only recently, students learned that they could no longer participate because of insufficient space.
It was understood that only one student per grade could attend. If anyone has noticed, the Liberty Science Center just increased from 168,000 to 295,000 square feet. How could accommodating these students be such a problem? It doesn’t make sense that hundreds of elementary students who placed in the top two of their grade would be eliminated from attending such a prestigious event. How is this fair to all the students who worked so diligently on their projects and who eagerly waited to compete?
Since December, these top students knew they’d be attending, as paperwork was completed. If there was a change in policy, why didn’t these students receive earlier written notification instead of verbally being notified in class only four days prior to this event? Who is responsible for poorly organizing this event and depriving so many students’ opportunities to excel? It’s a shame that they took away something so positive that, perhaps, some future budding scientists were about to attend, but could not, simply because the Liberty Science Center decided to remain open to the public for the very first time. If the problem was the amount of space available, why didn’t they have two separate events to accommodate all these elementary students?
The Hudson County Science Fair is an experience that should spur scientific interest, not discourage it! What is the plan going forward? Do they plan on cutting more students next year, too? Hopefully not, as this program is extremely beneficial to all the special talents being utilized by tomorrow’s leaders. Perhaps they should consider changing the location of the event to one that can accommodate all the top two students in grades five through eight of Hudson County. After all, this is how it was always done in the past.
Although some 200 grammar school students were fortunate enough to go and compete for the gold and other awards, the same wasn’t true for all those other unfortunate students who had their dreams of doing so completely dashed. These young scientists are our real stars of the future and it is extremely unfortunate they had to be eliminated. Achieving first or second place for their grade is a challenge in itself, and one that should make them extremely proud. However, suddenly stripping these scientifically minded 10 to 14-year-olds the opportunity of attending the Jersey Journal’s Hudson County Science Fair was certainly a disgrace! From the viewpoint of my 12-year-old, “What ever happened to no child left behind?”
MARY BETH GOLDEN