Carter Whiteside is not your typical fifth-grader.
He is nine years old, which ordinarily would place him in third grade. But he is performing academically at a level that many teenagers would be proud of.
The Impact Academy student is taking fifth-grade courses in all subjects except math, in which he currently is enrolled in Honors Algebra I and excelling, according to school district officials.
To top it off, last month he won the district-wide spelling bee and defeated 40 other students from elementary and middle schools across the county. He will represent Henry County February 25 at the GAE Region 5 spelling bee at Edwards Middle School in Conyers.
Also competing at that event will be the three top spellers who finished just behind Whiteside at the county level: Alexis Walker, a seventh-grader at Stockbridge Middle School; Josiah Thompson, a fifth-grader at East Lake Elementary School; and Abisak Lian, a fourth-grader at Ola Elementary School.
Whiteside made it successfully through 21 rounds at the district bee, which took place at the Henry County Schools Performing Arts Center in McDonough. It was the first time the county’s spellers had competed face-to-face since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to spelling, the competition included a vocabulary round in accordance with guidelines from the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE) State Spelling Bee.
The new champion correctly spelled such words as “vacuousness,” “osteopath,” “exaggerate,” and “rejuvenate,” before being declared the winner after spelling “infrared.”
“This is my 31st year as an educator, and I have never had a student like Carter,” said Impact Academy Principal Steve Thompson. “He is an exceptional student in so many ways and is learning well beyond his expected grade level.
“He really thrives in math, where he is in a classroom with 13, 14 and 15-year-olds and is one of the top students in the class. His fellow students in that class accept him as a peer, really embrace him and are in awe of his ability to analyze, synthesize and solve complex algebra problems. It is a beautiful classroom environment.”
