National Spelling Bee?

Question

On Thursday, May 31st was the 80th Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. Evan M. O'Dorney, a thirteen year-old Californian boy, spelled the word serrefine (meaning small forceps to clamp a blood vessel) to win the championship. One of the greatest upsets was when Samir Patel incorrectly spelled clevis, c-l-e-v-i-c-e. What were your thoughts on the Bee? Did you think that there were challenging words? Who did you want to win? Who do you think will win next year? Who did you think would win this year? If you have ever participated in the National Bee, please share your experience. Thanks for your answers, I am just wondering your opinion on the Bee this year.

Of course the Bee should be challenging. I think that the first commenter has very pessimestic views though. I have made it very close to the National Spelling Bee, (by self-motivation) and it takes at least four hours of practice each day. Parents can try to force their children to participate in these contests but it all comes down to whether the student is willing to work hard enough.

By the way, when did I ever say that the Bee was "too challenging." I completely agree that the Spelling Bee and all other contests should be challenging in order to promote hard work.

Answer 1

Hi. I know alot about the bee cause he told me about it. (Check your other question.) He said serrefine is well known by most good spellers soo the winning word was too easy.

Ill ask him to anser this question in your other question cause actually i dont know that much.

Answer 2

Spelling Bees are inherently unfair. It all comes down to whether or not the kid is lucky enough to get a word they know, or can at least make a good guess at.

To find out who is really the best speller, you need to have them all spell the same words (by writing them down), and it needs to go in rounds of maybe 10 or 15 words per round (so the luck is taken out of it as much as possible), and then the top x number of kids move on to the next round, or the bottom x number of kids are knocked out of the competition.

Answer 3

Too challenging? That is the entire point of these things. I sympathesize with any child being forced to do these by their parents but if the child truly enjoys learning-- then that's the point. The fact that every other aspect of education is being lowered, is the reason people feel contests of this nature are too challenging. Let them be challenging. Let a child have the same motivation they have for video games. Challenge is not a thing to be feared.

Answer 4

I missed the televised National Bee this year. Thank you for posting the results!

I made it to my county level of the bee a few years ago- I tied for 5th place with 5 other people. It was nerve-wracking, but fun in retrospect. I misspelled "augean"- extremely difficult, as in a task to be done.