Homeschooled Boy Wins Geography Bee

From the Washington Post.

WASHINGTON - A home-schooled seventh-grader from Minnesota has won the 17th annual National Geography Bee.

Thirteen-year-old Nathan Cornelius of Cottonwood was making his third straight trip to the national event.

He defeated nine other finalists during the final round, moderated by Alex Trebek, host of TV's "Jeopardy."

Nathan outlasted 14-year-old Karan Takhar of Rhode Island in an eleven-question championship round. The deciding question was the name of the dammed river that forms artificial Lake Gatun (gah-TOON') in the Panama Canal system.

The answer -- the Chagres (CHAH'-gres) River.

Nathan wins a 25,000-dollar college scholarship and lifetime membership in National Geographic Society.

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Should anyone be surprised by this? The encouraging this is that the short article doesn't editorialize on the unfair advantage homeschoolers are supposed to have by excluding other subjects in favor of studying geography.

And he's from Minnesota too; he must be a cool kid (pardon the pun).