Our Academic Team provides lessons on success

Once a year, we set aside a special day to recognize the Daily Herald Academic Team, a group of outstanding suburban students who excel inside and out of the classroom so well that their achievements cry out for recognition.

We are only too happy to give them that recognition.

They’ve earned it, and in many respects, their dedication and hard work give the lie to the notion that young people today are somehow irresponsible and unmotivated.

We invite you to examine the credentials of this year’s Academic Team, as they are presented today on the front pages of our Neighbor sections in print and on the community pages of dailyherald.com online.

If you do, we predict you will find yourself saying “Wow!” or words to that effect.

These young people aren’t just intelligent, and that’s a lesson their accomplishments should teach to everyone.

In the vast majority of cases, they come from homes where parents are concerned and involved in their lives and their educations. In most cases, they’ve grown up in stable environments where reasonable rules are set and dispassionately enforced but love is unconditional. In all cases, they’re the beneficiaries of quality schools and caring, demanding and effective teachers.

They aren’t just bright. They’re also, to employ a delightful phrase we heard the other day, “emotionally intelligent.”

In other words, for the most part: They practice self-discipline, bind themselves to aggressive but reachable goals, exercise good judgment and common sense, organize their time and their lives, accept responsibility, learn from both failures and successes, maintain strong values centered around respect for other people and, of course, work hard.

Not every child within reach of this newspaper can grow up to be named to the Academic Team. The numbers rule that out.

But every child can become an educational success and, with that as a foundation, a success in life.

The formula we’ve outlined above, and followed to a large extent by members not only of this year’s Daily Herald Academic Team but also by the members of all the Academic Teams since we started naming them, provides the blueprint.

Involved parents. Stable and loving environments. Demanding teachers who care. And students with emotional intelligence.

The more all of us can promote those components, in our families and in our communities, the more we can breed success.

Take some time today to reflect on this year’s Academic Team. And to congratulate the members of it. Take some time also to use them as role models.