John Yeates Middle School technology instructor Alton Christmas may have made the understatement of the year.

“We’re living in a technological world,” he told reporter Matthew Ward during an interview about the school’s Technology Student Association.

In a country where the average American is rarely more than a few feet from a technological device of some sort, whether it’s an automobile or a light bulb or an iPhone, technological proficiency and creativity are skills to be cultivated early in life. Technology education should be a priority in our schools, right alongside core subjects and the arts.

Students at John Yeates have the opportunity to become members of the school’s Technology Student Association, which helps bring the world of technology into sharper focus for students who want to take their interest beyond computer class. The group recently brought home 14 awards from a recent regional competition in Middlesex County, and many of the students will move on to a state-level competition.

First-place awards went to the students’ work on essays on technology, career preparation, multimedia productions, promotional design, prepared speech and the Communication Challenge. Students also won a total of eight second- and third-place awards.

Christmas reports many former members of the school’s Technology Student Association have gone on to become engineering majors — further proof that giving students an avenue to explore their interests outside of regular classwork can help them realize their dreams.

We applaud Christmas and the young members of the Technology Student Association for their work and wish them luck in the state competition on May 3-5 in Richmond. We expect to see some of them in Orlando this summer for the national competition.