Competing in

the difficult Blue Division of the Challenge, Christian earned a perfect

score in the year's first meet. Nationwide, only 20 sixth-graders did

so. Landmark's Wordmaster students were supervised in preparation for

the Challenge by LeLe Longsdorf.

The WordMaster

Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking which first encourages students

to become familiar with a set of interesting words (considerably harder

than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete

analogies expressing various kinds of relationships. Working to solve

the Challenge analogies helps students learn to think both analytically

and metaphorically.

The WordMaster

Challenge has been administered for the past 16 years by a company based

in Allendale, New Jersey, which is dedicated to inspiring high achievement

in American schools. Joel is the second Landmark Christian School sixth-grader

to achieve a perfect score in the past few years.