The kids are all right

It's something we in the newspaper business hear all the time from readers: "Why don't you print any good news?"

We'd be happy to. At a time when too often our society is grappling with juvenile delinquency and underperforming pupils in schools, not enough good things can be said for the young people who have their heads on straight, and give our generation hope for the future.

Which brings us to Michael Walden.

He's this year's valedictorian at A.R. Johnson Health Science and Engineering Magnet School. He's president of the school's student council and its National Honor Society chapter. He spends close to 20 hours a week studying. He hasn't made a grade lower than an A since he was in first grade.

Not impressed yet? How about this: Michael won acceptance not to one Ivy League college, but four -- Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Cornell. He chose Yale.

And how did he do it? "I really had to learn to time-manage," the 17-year-old said. "I also had to keep God first. None of this would have been possible without him."

Michael is an extraordinary young man. But teens with similar mind-sets are more common than some people think. We hear so much about the kids who get into trouble, but not enough about the kids who stay out of it.

If you need an affirmation of faith in today's youth, try volunteering as a community judge for Columbia County schools' senior projects next year. It offers such a candid glimpse into where graduating seniors are in their lives and what they want to do next.

At Greenbrier High School, for example, one student's project on violence against women included her own enrollment in a martial-arts class, and she is now an enthusiastic pupil of tae kwon do. Another student who conducted a comparative study of the world's major religions drew hundreds to a Christian youth rally, and plans to enter the ministry some day. And somewhere in the school's student body is a senior who researched the power of poetic expression, and who very well could be the next Maya Angelou.

The bad kids out there -- the ones who start the fights, break the laws and shamble aimlessly through life -- are the ones who need to be reached by teachers and parents, and turned around.

But the ones who already have been reached -- the ones with ambition and vision and good heads on their shoulders -- are to be applauded and encouraged. They are the ones who will lay the foundation for our future, and for that we should be thankful and proud.