Math Pentathlon

Kenneth completed his Math Pentathlon tournament on Saturday (Evelyn had hers about a month ago). About 450 students from a regional area of TX participated. Some came from areas up to 3.5 hrs away. The idea is that each student pairs up with a student they do not know from a different school and competes in 5 different games, lasting 45 minutes each. (Somehow, even though there were 5 games at 45 minutes each, the day went from 7:30 AM -- 4 PM.) I was a judge again for one of the games, which is always interesting because with some of the kids, you can see the nuances of their personalities come through. Most have good sportsmanship, but others will probably be misogynistic pains in the rears when they grow up. I had the pleasure of getting one of those in the last game I judged and unfortunately, the person he was playing against was a rule-follower to the extreme (and there are many rules).

Here's a conversation thread (based on memory of course):

Student 1: [On turn #1] "Pass the flag card."

Student 2: "You always have to have the flag, card don't you?"

Student 1: [On turn #2] "Pass the flag card."

Student 2: [dirty look]

Student 1: [On turn #3] "Pass the flag card."

Student 2: "You constantly have to ask for the flag card. Somebody is just in love with the flag card."

[Various iterations of this continue for 45 minutes.]

Student 1: [After raising the Opinion Card] "I challenge your move. You cannot move the queen backwards to avoid the trap that you foresee I'm setting for you."

Student 2: "I disagree. I will do what I want because that's not how my coach taught us."

Erin: "Student 1 made a correct challenge. Move your queen back to where it was. You lose this turn."

Student 2: [Out of nowhere] "Girls are crybabies."

Erin: "You'd better watch your comments. One more comment out of you and you're disqualified." [Authoritative stare]

On a positive note, Student 2 lost that game. Justice was served.