HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION 1997: RENAISSANCE MAN MIDDLESEX SENIOR WANTS A REVOLUTION IN PUBLIC EDUCATION:[Middle Peninsula Edition]

JUDITH HAYNES Daily Press. Daily Press. Newport News: Jun 5, 1997.  pg. D.1

Abstract (Article Summary)

Hickman's mother, Patricia M. Carlo, a former social worker, read philosopher Betrand Russell aloud while breastfeeding. She didn't want to be bored with baby books and figured infant Darian wouldn't know the difference anyway.

Carlo has been on Social Security disability for years because of bipolar disorder, an illness that used to be called manic depression. Last year, when Hickman was chosen to go to Washington for Presidential Classroom, they had to put together a suitable coat-and- tie wardrobe on limited resources.

Staff photo (color) by KYNDELL THOMPSON Darian Hickman, a senior at Middlesex High School, stands with his mentor physicist Neil Webre in a computer lab at the school. Hickman received the largest scholarship ever awarded a Middlesex student. Hickman will attend John Hopkins University and plans to study cognitive science.

Full Text (1263   words)

Copyright Chicago Tribune Co. Jun 5, 1997

Darian Hickman, 18, who graduates next week from Middlesex High School, hopes to change education in the United States.

"If there's a job called `society engineer,' that's what I would be," he says. Since there probably isn't, he'd settle for a role in public education, which he thinks would be the closest thing.

Part of what he wants to study in college is how the human brain learns. Then he wants to figure out how to cultivate curiosity in students.

His own successes - including winning one of the largest scholarships in the history of the school - are partly due, he says, to "a very aggressive curiosity," a keen imagination and creative visualization.

"I believe that being able to picture things in your head is very important . . .

"I was talking to my girlfriend the other day and I told her to imagine a red square with a black dot in the center, and to picture turning it to the right 90 degrees. It took her quite a while."

So, Darian, are you a nerd?

"I try to be," he says.

"For some reason, people have liked me more this year than any other year. . . . This is actually the first year I've had to budget the time I've spent with friends."

In his senior year, he's been a varsity soccer player, Student Government president, Academic Challenge captain and part-time worker at the Henley Lumber Do-It Center in Hartfield, among other things. He's graduating summa cum laude, which means he has a cumulative grade average of 3.9 or better on a scale of 4.0.

During his high school career, he's also been known as an occasional campaigner.

As a junior, Hickman surveyed parents and students, then appealed to the School Board for a change in the policy that prohibited high school students from wearing shorts except during the first and last six weeks of the school year.

"Why would someone think that this change would disrupt the learning environment?" he asked board members during his obviously well-thought-out presentation. He never appeared frustrated or impatient as then-superintendent W. Ernest Worley insisted the time limit for shorts should be reduced, not increased.

Hickman reminded the board that the school is not air-conditioned and said, "It is easier to learn if you're in comfort." Separate, existing guidelines for modesty should always be enforced, he said.

The School Board bumped the issue back to policymakers at the high school, who removed the time restriction.

The argument of the opponents "didn't make sense - or it didn't make enough sense," Hickman says today.

He was able to present a calm, reasoned case, he says, because "I wouldn't have gotten up there if I hadn't already thought about all the arguments against it. . . .

"I've spent many a year watching people argue. You don't get anywhere with sarcasm. You have to attack the problem" - not the person.

"People are more open to your opinion if you're open to theirs," he says.

He first learned public speaking in 4-H. In fifth grade, "I did a report on sharks in front of the entire school. Got a blue ribbon."

In subsequent years, however, he didn't always do as well. He analyzed what went wrong and modified his behavior. "I just got really freaking tired of second place," he says.

Now he studies intensively for a competition even if he doesn't know exactly what he will be tested on. For this year's Academic Challenge, for example, he got an almanac and memorized all the capitals of all the countries in the world, "paying homage to the god who controls regional Academic Challenge."

The discipline aids self-confidence, he says.

"I could feel good about going into the competition because I've made some effort to prepare for it."

The Academic Challenge team finished its season 13-0 and won its first Region A championship. Statewide competition doesn't begin until next year.

School Board Chairman Nancy P. Jackson, a former teacher who has known Hickman's family for years, calls him "a really bright, neat kid."

His parents, who are divorced but live a short drive from each other and are on good terms, have encouraged Darian's inquisitiveness and given him freedom to explore. Their encouragement has contributed to his accomplishments, Jackson says.

"It would shock me if he didn't go places," she says.

Hickman's mother, Patricia M. Carlo, a former social worker, read philosopher Betrand Russell aloud while breastfeeding. She didn't want to be bored with baby books and figured infant Darian wouldn't know the difference anyway.

"My idea of having kids was to let them grow up and see who they are," she says. "We left him on his own and he's thanked us for that."

She and Bruce Hickman, father of Darian and Patrick, 14, have shared custody of the boys. Bruce, also a former social worker, is a builder who lives in Deltaville.

"He's really been there" for his sons, she says.

The boys were 6 and 2 when their parents separated. Whenever they had conflicts, "we tried to work it out with what's best for them," Carlo says.

Although she's clearly proud of her children, she doesn't want to take credit for Darian's achievements.

"What if he switches and becomes a serial killer? You don't want to take the blame."

She, Darian and Patrick live in a cottage on a dirt lane off of No Head Bottom Road in Locust Hill.

There's a computer but no working television. Visitors enter through a utility room where a painting with a geometric design hangs over the washer and dryer.

Carlo has been on Social Security disability for years because of bipolar disorder, an illness that used to be called manic depression. Last year, when Hickman was chosen to go to Washington for Presidential Classroom, they had to put together a suitable coat-and- tie wardrobe on limited resources.

He asked a friend - the son of a minister - for shopping tips, figuring if anybody would know how to dress well on little money, a clergyman's child would.

"I'd have to say that was probably the best week of my life, the most fulfilling week," he says of Presidential Classroom, where students from all over the United States came together to study politics.

For himself, however, despite his ease talking with people and his communication skills, politics is not a likely career.

He sees it as "a lot of ceremonial crap . . . going to dinners . . . kissing butt."

He'd rather become active in just one political cause - say, educational reform. And he's not talking about being a classroom teacher. This would be something major, possibly revolutionary.

Perhaps he will invent an educational tool that will make him enough money to work at reform. "I don't know if I would even hold a position. I may do it the Gandhi way."

When he goes to Johns Hopkins University in the fall with a scholarship that is nearly enough to pay the one-year cost of $31,100 for tuition, room and board, he will avoid a liberal arts degree.

"I want to be a renaissance man, but with a specialty."

Always, though, he will carry with him his definition of `luck:'

"When opportunity meets preparation."

People:

Carlo, Patricia M,  Hickman, Bruce,  Hickman, THOMPSON Darian

Author(s):

JUDITH HAYNES Daily Press

Dateline:

MIDDLESEX

Section:

Middle Peninsula Life

Publication title:

Daily Press. Newport News: Jun 5, 1997.  pg. D.1

Source Type:

Newspaper

ProQuest document ID:

86162609

Text Word Count

1263