At Tuesday night’s Harrison County Board of Education meeting, six middle school students were recognized as 2015 Golden Horseshoe Winners. Five were from Bridgeport Middle School.

 

Receiving personal congratulations from Superintendent Dr. Mark Manchin were Vincent Pinti, Tristan Nolte, Brooke Driscoll, Gunnar Webb and Hailie Davis of BMS and Alanna Lowther of Washington Irving Middle School.

 

The six Harrison County eighth graders – along with more than 200 from across the state – were inducted as Knights and Ladies of the Golden Horseshoe Society at a May 1 ceremony held at the West Virginia Culture Center (pictured left).

 

Each year, 221 West Virginia eighth grade students are selected based on scores received on the Golden Horseshoe test. This year, BMS was fortunate to have five meet the criteria, said Carl Wunderlich, BMS West Virginia History teacher.

 

“We ask all of our eighth graders to take the test. It really is optional, but we ask them all to take it and try their best,” he said. “Some schools give an entrance test and work with those kids after school where we really try to work with all eighth grade students.”

 

Wunderlich said he is pleased that so many students excelled this year, but said he has to share the credit with Bill Shaver and Kerrie Lambert, all who teach West Virginia History to eighth grade students. He said it is a subject that the students seem to like.

 

“I’ve had kids tell me that they didn’t like social studies in the past, but they like it this year,” he said. “I simply think it’s because it’s about them being West Virginians and I think they enjoy that.”

 

One of the approaches the educators use is breaking down stereotypes, Wunderlich said.

 

“We explain to the students that some of those stereotypes are just used to make fun of us, but we’re really not that way,” he said.

 

Take language, for example.

 

“When you hear somebody say ‘boosh’ or ‘poosh’ instead of ‘bush’ or ‘push,’ they’re speaking the Elizabethan language which has been carried down from when people came over here from England,” Wunderlich said. “It’s that southern mountain dialect they are carrying with them and we should never make fun of anybody who speaks that way. Some of our pronunciations come from the time when Queen Elizabeth was queen of England.”

 

And, yes, West Virginia is a state, but Virginia is our mother state and the two states share much history.

 

“Virginia was one of the 13 original colonies and just because we broke off in 1863 doesn’t mean we’re not part of that Virginia history,” Wunderlich said.

 

In 2014, Joplin Kehrer was the school’s only representative at the statewide Golden Horseshoe event.

 

The award is an 83-year-old tradition, named after and based on the golden horseshoes given to West Virginia’s early 18-century explorers. The Golden Horseshoe has become known as a symbol of scholastic achievement to honor students who excel in West Virginia studies and have an understanding of their state’s proud heritage.

 

Each year 221 eighth-grade students are honored for their knowledge of West Virginia history at the one-day ceremony in Charleston. Typically, the ceremony is held outside the state Capitol, but was moved indoors because of weather.  Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito welcomed the new members of the society.