High school accomplishments

Props to Seattle's Garfield high school. During the past week, the school's jazz band won first place in the prestigious, international "Essentially Ellington" high school jazz competition, held annually at Lincoln Center in New York. Garfield has won the competition an unprecedented four times in the past decade. (Seattle's Roosevelt high school, which itself has won three times in the past decade, took fourth place.) And ten of the Garfield group's members won individual awards, more than any other competing school.

Also in the past week, Garfield's soccer team won the regional 4A championship. The school took the title despite the fact that four of its players, including its senior captain, did not arrive until the second half. The four players' plane from New York -- where they had been performing at Lincoln Center as part of the jazz ensemble -- had been delayed in arriving.

I know I've criticized American high schools and American students, and serious problems certainly exist in American education. But there are great kids out there, accomplishing some amazing feats. And Garfield is a great public high school, producing graduates with outstanding academic and musical skills.

Full Disclosure: Garfield is the high school serving my own neighborhood. Go Bulldogs!