2001 GRADS ARE PRODUCTS OF EFFORT, DEDICATION

By the end of summer, this newspaper will have run literally hundreds of pieces of good news about area students, and that's not counting names on honor rolls and the annual list of valedictorians and salutatorians.

So far, our editors have devoted nearly two full pages this week, plus the weekly Learning section news briefs, to announcements of these students' accomplishments.

The latest was on Tuesday.

We learned that Suzanne White, Courtney Maguire and Holly Dirnberger won scholarships.

Ben Chisman was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

Claire Syler was inducted into two honorary societies at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Elizabeth Green and Jeremy Driskell earned degrees -- summa cum laude -- at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.

Ben LeGrand graduated magna cum laude from St. Louis University.

The list of names will grow as the weeks pass and as still more universities and colleges and schools send in the glad tidings. The subjects will be young people from across Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois. In many cases there will be accompanying photos of our best and brightest, wearing genuine smiles that come from the satisfaction of completing a hard task.

But such newspaper content shouldn't be considered simply an "attaboy" or "attagirl" for students whose educational institutions or parents do a good job of public relations. Those short stories shout something about the area's mothers, fathers, teachers and personal heroes.

Behind every smiling face is a force that drove that student to success: a teacher who simplified algebra, who taught the love of English and its bizarre sentence construction, who stayed after school for tutoring sessions.

Or an older mentor whose dedication and success set an example.

Or moms and dads who insisted that homework comes before Nintendo, that bedtime is important on school nights and that average isn't good enough.

While the rest of America shakes its head about school violence, burned-out teachers and absentee parents -- and so do we, sometimes -- this area is doing well with its young people.

For every youthful offender, there are a hundred other success stories coming out of our local schools.

And for that, moms, dads, educators and mentors, we take the end of another school year to say thank you.