Springfield (January 27, 2016) – Two-time Springfield Heights Elementary School Geography Bee Champion Robbie Feinstein has for the fourth time in five days this week gotten lost on the walk home from the school bus stop. Despite being dropped off only four houses away from his home, Feinstein just cannot manage to make his way home without having to ask neighbors and passersby for detailed, sometimes written, directions.
Coming off another easy Geography Bee victory last week, Feinstein, 11, a well-rounded student who plays several sports as well as the bass guitar, was expected home around 4:00pm but didn’t arrive until approximately 7:30pm. His mother, Andrea, was in constant contact with him as she texted and called him over those three and a half hours trying to determine his whereabouts but it was to no avail. When he finally arrived home to very relieved parents, he could not explain exactly what happened but was able to describe where his after school journey took him. “I must’ve taken a wrong turn off the bus again and before I knew it, I was walking up a pretty steep hill, very similar to Canaval Hill in Poteau, Oklahoma which has an elevation of 1,999 making it not only the tallest hill in the U.S. but also the world,” explained Robbie. “Thank goodness the incline wasn’t as big as Mount Makalua in the Himalayas,” he offered with a light hearted chuckle.
Andrea and husband Rich are struggling to find ways to help the geographically brilliant but directionally challenged Robbie. They started out by asking the bus driver to point him in the right direction home and have gradually moved up to erecting flashing neon signs directing him home and even have gone as far as creating a yellow painted path littered with popcorn and candy from the bus drop off right to their front steps. Unfortunately, nothing has worked.
The Feinsteins have used this flashing sign in an attempt to steer their son in the right direction when exiting the bus.
“What’s strange is that he knows that Sudan is East Southeast of Algeria and that the San Juan River is the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua but hasn’t a clue that our house is a quick left off the bus. It’s bizarre. I don’t even think he knows which is right and left. And I’ve repeatedly shown him the thumb/pointer trick!” a frustrated Andrea sighed.
Prominent area child psychologist, Dr. Dan Davidoff, has offered his 33 years of clinical experience to the Feinsteins by advising that it may be a good idea for one of his parents to get him off the bus in the afternoon.
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