We have now spoken five times.
The “Tracks to ‘26” students were introduced as kindergarteners.
Now, they are fourth graders.
This year, we asked the kids their birthdays, and as it happens all but one were fall babies:
Nicholas Tuttle — Sept. 19
Jack Miller — Oct. 27
Jess Aubert — Oct. 14
Diego Bustos — March 7
Trinity Evans — Dec. 12
Sofia Rodriguez — Nov. 22
“Tracks to ’26,” a yearly inquiry into what drives and inspires six young hearts and minds, returns for installment five of 13.
Here are new answers to the annual set of questions from the “Tracks,” now aged 10, who were selected in 2013 for this 13-year project. At right are summaries of what our sextet had to say in December 2016.
Each year until they graduate in 2026, we will check in every December with Jess Aubert (Parkdale), Diego Bustos (Westside), Nicholas Tuttle (May Street), Trinity Evans (Cascade Locks), Jack Miller (May Street) and Sofia Rodriquez (Mid Valley).
“Tracks to ‘26” is meant to be a living yearbook of the ideas, insights and experiences of these six young people. Each year we ask the Tracksters six recurring questions:
Photos and interviews are all from the first two weeks of December.
It may be that the learning curve has started to turn toward the youngsters with this year’s “Tracks to ‘26” interviews. When Sofia Rodriquez spoke of why she enjoys her current favorite books, the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, she said, “Also they’re around my lexile of reading.”
“Lexile?” I asked.
“Lexile.”
I said, “What was that word?”
“Lexile. It’s like level,” Sofia said. “L-E-X-I-L-E. We take SRI quizzes to find out what it is and there’s SRI for books and SRI for you just take it and it’s a long test and at the end you find out what lexile you are in reading.”
“You got me. That’s not a word I’ve ever heard.”
“Really?” Sofia deadpanned. “Wow.”
Sofia laughed at the end our talk, when I said, “There’s sure new stuff going on with you. Including teaching old guys new words.”
Certainly, the future will hold more and more examples of how smart these kids are becoming.
More than in previous years is the occasional question that they just don’t have answer for, but mainly it’s the philosophical or subjective ones. “What do you think about the future?” drew, understandably, more “I don’t knows” than ever.
They might not be able to put it into words now, but maybe next year …
— Editor Kirby Neumann-Rea
2017 Answers
NICHOLAS TUTTLE
SOFIA RODRIGUEZ
JACK MILLER
JESS AUBERT
DIEGO BUSTOS
TRINITY EVANS
What they said in 2016
(Edited for space)
Jess Aubert
What is a good thing that happened to you today?
There was pumpkin pie at lunch, and it had whipped cream on it.
What are your thoughts about school?
I like it. have a lot of friends. I like playing at recess and I like gym. We get to exercise.
What are your favorite things to do these days?
Read. I like non-fiction, like “Bad Kitty” and “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.”
What is a challenge to you?
Doing a backflip on my trampoline. I can do a front-flip but I can’t do a backflip. I do trampoline a lot in the summer.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A firefighter, I like to save. I practice with worms and bugs. I pick them up out of the driveway and sidewalk and put them in the grass so they don’t get hurt.
What do you think about the future?
I think I’m going to be a good person, because I save the worms, and I’m kind. I have helped my brother get a band aid when he got hurt.
Jack Miller
What’s a fun or good thing that happened to you today?
Today was toast and eggs day. Friday is cereal day. I like Frosted Mini-Wheats. I get a ride to school with Grandma and Grandpa (Roger and June Baker, who had lived in Hood River 20 years at the time).
What are your favorite things to do these days?
Watch TV, read books. That’s all. (Last book read was “Joshua Dredd”: kid whose mom and dad are supervillains but he wants to be a superhero.)
What do you think about school?
It’s harder. The math is harder, and the reading’s harder, the writing’s harder. The math is multiplication and division and the books have a lot more words.
What is a challenge to you?
Science. There’s hard tests. Running. (Asked why) I don’t really know.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A policeman.
What do you think about the future?
I don’t know. I think flying cars, jetpacks. Phones, better phones. (They will) teleport you, maybe.
Diego Bustos
What is a good thing that happened so far today?
I played tag at recess.
What are your favorite things to do?
I like video games, like the Lego Movie videogame. I got President Business for one million Legos. You have to get Legos and you get money, like Legos on X-box. It’s fun because I got to be really tall and I got to kick. (Who do you kick?) A lot of people. I like to play football, at the middle school. I play with a team in Hood River. I played linebacker and defense. It’s fun to tackle. It feels like I’m in space.
What do you think about school?
It’s boring and hard. You have to do a lot of math and writing.
What is a challenge to you?
Math. You have to do math problems.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I want to be a builder like my Dad.
What do you think about the future?
I wonder how it’s going to be like.
Sofia Rodriquez
What is a good thing that happened so far today?
That there’s these things called Santagrams and I bought them for 50 cents each and send them to my friends.
What do you think about school?
We do a lot more multiplication than we did in second grade. I’m making more friends and there is something called choir, you go every Tuesday after school and I joined the choir.
What are your favorite things to do?
I like to read a lot and I also like math. What I like about math is that it’s not as hard because my brothers taught me when I was younger. So it’s not really hard but it’s not really easy so it’s right.
What is a challenge to you?
I think swimming at the middle of the pool, it’s like seven feet. I also think that dividing by higher numbers. There’s this rope and you jump off it and you go to the middle of the pool and swim straight over there.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A teacher.
What do you think about the future?
I think that when I’ll be older I might be able to do the bigger numbers. Dividing will be easier, and I will be able to swim from the other place and it won’t be as hard.
Trinity Evans
What’s a good thing that happened to you today?
I played on a little ice puddle. I skated on it a little.
What are your favorite things to do?
I like to do crafts a lot. I just like to make stuff out of card board. I made a Christmas tree I can put up in my room. It’s about that tall (indicating 3 feet).
What do you think about school?
I think it’s been going really well. I’ve been meeting lots of new people but I mostly have the same people from last year. I just have one new student. He’s new to Cascade Locks, he used to live in Portland but he moved here. It’s been a little weird but I’ve got to know him really well.
What is a challenge to you?
Maye multiplication and division. I haven’t been taught a whole lot but I KNOW them, I just don’t know all my times tables and division tables. I work on them every day and night.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
I’ve been thinking about a person who studies bugs, because I really like bugs a lot. They’re just really helpful to the world and I just really like them. Many kinds of bees are endangered and that’s really bad because they actually make foods like berries. I learned that like a week ago.
What do you think about the future?
I think it’s going to go very well, because I’ve had a perfect life so far. I think the world will be better, because what I want to do when I grow up will actually help the endangered bugs in the world.
Nicholas Tuttle
What are your favorite things to do?
Recess. I‘m trying to make a big snowball at school. We made an igloo at home, with my Dad and brothers.
What do you think about school?
Good. Reading, math, science, and art. I like them. In science, we’re talking about clouds and we made a book with instructions. We watch what type of clouds are out, like cumulus, and see what the weather will be like from the clouds. And they’re not made out of cotton: they’re made out of water.
What is a challenge to you?
Running. Because I just broke my leg (in October). It’s different. I still limp a little. I got it broken playing football.
What do you want to be when you grow up?
A football player.
What do you think about the future?
Good. I don’t know about it. It will be harder at school. The snow will still be here.
Commented