That the future of this country rests in the hands of our young is axiomatic, self-evident. It was therefore gratifying for me to witness a group of students at the 28th Colorado Mathematics Awards in May. I had previously attended a few presentations at the invitation of the CMA’s chair, Dr. David Carlson, a friend of several decades. The program, held at the Grant-Humphreys Mansion in Denver, was to recognize outstanding performance in national and international mathematics competitions and contests by Colorado middle school, high school and undergraduate students. About 130 people — students, parents and observers like me — cheered as names of winners were called and young men and women stood up to receive their certificates.

There were various categories of competition. One was the “American Mathematics Competition 8,” in which students in eighth grade and below were tested. Nationally 74,388 students from 1,910 schools participated. One of the winners — Derek Yin — is a fifth-grade student. I found his impressive victory exhilarating. The categories of tests differed according to age and grade.

MATHCOUNTS, an after-school program, involved sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders who competed at school, chapter, state and national levels. The top four finishers then comprised the Colorado team. They participated in the national exam, finishing in 22nd place out of 56 teams. As to be expected, the recipients of awards beamed proudly, holding their certificates aloft. Their parents and school math team coaches beamed with pride, as well.

There was a sprinkling of Whites who won. Sadly though, there wasn’t a single Native American, Black or Hispanic student contestant or teacher in attendance. Still I was proud of these Asian American youth, who spend long hours studying, solving and puzzling over mathematics problems in middle and high school classes across the state. They and the colleagues who didn’t win are our scientists, engineers and doctors of tomorrow. And of course their darker-skinned parents — most of them scientists of sundry specializations — are heroes too. They nurture, tend to, and promote mathematics education of their own children in particular and America’s in a general sense.

Across the country, in National Harbor, Maryland, young Dev Shah correctly spelled psammophile, becoming the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, winning a $50,000 prize. Like most of the Colorado CMA students discussed above, Dev Shah loves mathematics puzzles, too. Somehow a love of mathematics opens the door to the world of learning and academics.

Anyone who pays attention to spelling bee competitions knows that the majority of the winners of most competitions have been South Asian youth who also engage in and win many mathematics competitions. We should be grateful to their scientist parents, many of whom increasingly populate more STEM academic positions across America.

In the meantime, Elizabeth Hanson resigned from the Douglas County School Board; her reason she said was, “Politics and ego were the primary agenda of the board.” She alluded to Black students’ complaints of racist bullying in a Castle Rock school. The school board and Castle Rock police had been informed that Castle Rock middle school students used group chats to target and bully Black and biracial students with racist slurs, a complaint verified by screenshots of the Snapchats. Hanson was concerned the board had not addressed the complaints, as well as seeming to create and welcome chaos.

Over the last few years, the Douglas County School Board has mirrored what we see transpire across the US: highly motivated partisan groups bent on magnifying our political divide, despite harming the academic pursuit of teachers, students and a majority of parents. PTA meetings when my children were young were tame — light years before our toxic politics and gun violence entered the classroom. It’s exceedingly painful to see schoolchildren confront such fracases caused by adults.

It would do everyone a whole lot of good if members of education boards spent time following teachers doing classroom work. Or take an afternoon observing the goings on at meetings similar to CMA’s. They would appreciate the brilliance of teachers they treat with contempt, and the difficulty and meaning of tending to an education.

A split screen exists in my mind’s eye. It’s occupied by young mathematicians feverishly working, and adults, so full of themselves and should know better, squabbling, causing turmoil in schools — for teachers and students. Students, their charges, are the future. The sooner adults realize they represent the past, the sooner Douglas County’s education will be back on the right track.

Pius Kamau, M.D., a retired general surgeon, is president of the Aurora-based Africa America Higher Education Partnerships (AAHEP); co-founder of the Africa Enterprise Group and an activist for minority students’ STEM education. He is a National Public Radio commentator, Huffington Post blogger, and past columnist for Denver dailies. He has authored a memoir and a novel recounting Kenya’s bloody colonial history.