Cant Keep Quiet!

I’m just going to post this column by Mike Thomas in its entirety. Not just because it is pretty amazing that these 3 sisters graduated from Freedom High School in the top 3 of their class, not just because the youngest sister is 14, but also because it is a happy story. After reading yesterday’s article about the number of troop deaths in Iraq in a year, I need a little bit of happy today. Tomorrow will be another grim day.

Jasmine Young had a good final year at Freedom High School.

Her schedule included calculus, chemistry, statistics, English literature, microeconomics, government and environmental science.

All were Advanced Placement classes, meaning college level.

Jasmine got A’s across the board.

In June, she begins a medical honors program at Florida International University. After three years, she will enter medical school at the University of South Florida.

When she graduates from medical school, she will be just old enough to celebrate with a glass of champagne.

Jasmine is 14.

The only glitch on her resume is that, even with her weighted 5.07 grade-point average, she did not graduate top of her class.

She came in third.

Her 17-year-old twin sisters, Jacqueline and Justine, took the two top spots.

“Nobody I have talked to has ever heard of anything like this being done before,” Freedom Principal Mark Brown says of the sisters’ 1-2-3 academic finish.

Jacqueline and Justine will be joining Jasmine in the medical honors program at FIU.

How did they do it? On average, they each put in three to four hours of study time every night.

“Except when there’s a big project,” Justine says.

Then the hours could double.

Do they study together?

“We don’t,” Jasmine says. “If one has a question about a concept, we’ll ask each other.”

Are they competitive?

“It’s more supportive,” Jacqueline says.

Do their parents push them?

“They never impose anything,” Justine says. “It’s our own initiative.”

Says their dad, George Young: “Whatever they like to do, they have a choice. But whatever they do, they have to do a good job. They have to finish homework before TV. They have to focus instead of being sidetracked on other things.”

Jasmine made the decision to bypass two years of middle school and one year of high school.

“That was her own initiative,” says Young, who did not sit in on my interview with the girls. “She likes to excel. She likes to push the limit.”

She also wanted to join her sisters. Fitting in with older kids was no problem. At one function, she got a standing ovation from classmates.

“These girls just work extremely hard,” Brown says. “They’re all well-liked here.”

That has something to do with their attitude. There is not the academic swagger you get with some high-achievers. They answer questions without embellishment.

They are unfailingly polite.

For fun, they swim, play tennis and read. There could be a battle over the seventh Harry Potter book when it comes out in July. Their favorite TV shows are Friends, The King of Queens and Seinfeld.

They are a walking commercial for Orange County schools.

That may come from dad.

“I believe in public schools,” says Young, a member of Freedom’s school-advisory committee. “Public schools are a good mix representing the community. I believe kids should deal with the more gifted and the less gifted. That is how the real world is. I don’t believe they should be pampered. I believe public schools did quite a good job.”

Sometimes, he took the girls to his committee meetings to give them insight into how the school is run. Evidently, the lesson took hold.

After my interview with the sisters ends, Jasmine makes one request: “Could you put a note in your story thanking the taxpayers for supporting public schools?”