Science Bowl

Shame on Jose Cardenas and the Valley [Edition] for your grudging May 5 article on North Hollywood High School’s brilliant performance in the National Science Bowl (“N. Hollywood Places 2nd in Science”). The article demonstrated neither an understanding of the event nor an understanding of the quality of students competing in it.

The National Science Bowl is not a sporting event, where first place is everything. The event requires intensive preparation and coaching throughout the school year, much like an academic decathlon for science. This is accomplished outside the normal school day through intense dedication on the part of the students and their coaches. . . . A second-place finish out of . . . 48 teams is a remarkable achievement.

What distinguished North Hollywood’s team from all of their competition, including the first-place team, was exemplary teamwork. This aspect, perhaps the most important of all, was virtually ignored in your article.

At a time when this country is proposing to import scientists due to an absence of home-grown talent, failure to laud and encourage the students who demonstrate such talent is inexcusable.

SHANI AHRONOWITZ, North Hollywood