Anybody have any thoughts on this National Spelling Bee?

[oberliner]

WASHINGTON - Samir Patel's dream of winning the national spelling title, a goal that dominated the last five years of his life, ended in one quick moment Thursday with the word "clevis."

Spectators in the Grand Hyatt ballroom gasped as the 13-year-old Texan spelled out the word for a type fastening device as "c-l-e-v-i-c-e." The error eliminated him in the fifth round of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Samir, considered by many to be this year's favorite, wiped away tears as he talked about it later.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070531/ap_on_re_us/spelling_bee;_ylt=AnFrpEf0d1ZZko2l5JQj5_is0NUE


Good/bad for the kids involved?

[bryant69]

1. The Kid's 13

He should be old enough to face disappointment, I would think.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[gatorboy]

3. You obviously don't know much about these spelling bee's

These kids eat and drink vocabulary. Watch the documentary "Spellbound". It will give you a good idea on the training these kids go through.

[bryant69]

4. So you disagree and think that Spelling Bee competitions are too hard?

Or what?

Bryant

[gatorboy]

5. That was your question?

I thought it was whether the kid should be disappointed are not.

Maybe you should explain.

That's E-X-P-L-A-I-N.

[bryant69]

6. I think the kid can be disappointed

I think the kid should be disappointed. I was disappointed when I lost game after game of Jr. High Football. But dealing with set backs and disapointments, that's part of life. And being 13 is probably old enough that they can start.

Now competing 5 year olds or even 8 year olds and I think that's a little too young. But i could be wrong.

Bryant

[gatorboy]

11. Unless it's Little League Hockey.Then it's just too darn entertaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyjm3A0N_VE

[Bjornsdotter]

12. I'm guessing you don't have kids

....it doesn't matter how old they are, they can still be disappointed.

Cheers

[bryant69]

14. I'm not saying he can't be disappointed

He obviously can. I'm saying being disappointed is part of life. Hell I'm 36 and I still get disappointed on a regular basis. But how do you deal with that disappointment, that's the question.

Bryant

[Bjornsdotter]

21. Yep, no kids

Kids cry when they are really disappointed, ask any parent or teacher. Now if he cries about it every day of his life, then it's a problem. This is no biggie.

I've taught college courses and have had students break down and cry.

Cheers

Cheers

[fishwax]

34. i don't think anybody was judging the kid for crying

or for being disappointed. I think the "he's old enough to be disappointed" remark was in response to the "good/bad for the kids?" question in the OP.

[AspenRose]

2. What concerns me is when parents push too hard

Has it really been his goal to win the national spelling bee since he was 8, or was that something his parents pushed him into?

[johnnie]

7. It's pretty intense, I'm sure

But I can think of 100 other things that would be worse for these kids to be going through. I would hope that the kids understand that they could be disqualified and they will need to accept that, I see nothing wrong with these types of contests.

[idgiehkt]

25. I'll never forget watching that one

a few years ago live, and one of the kids went to spell a word and just passed out right there on the stage, from stress and heat under the lights I think.

[Ioo]

8. Oh my god NO! They should be protected at all times!!!

NO this is real bad for kids, they should never ever face rejection, competition, or failure. I think that they should all have been given the list of words that was going to be used and allowed to look at that list AS NEEDED.

In the end, they should ALL be given a medal and trophy for a job well done, and all of the prizes should look alike, and no one should ever be ranked over another. THis is the only think that keeps are kids safe from the terrorist, and it makes Jesus happy.

I mean the real world is like this, why is this evil spelling bee teaching our kids how they live over there in Iraqastan?

:sarcasm:

[oberliner]

24. What a weird response

I was just curious what people thought of this event.

To devote so much time of one's childhood to learning how to spell words in order to win this competition?

Perhaps there are positive skills gained from such an endeavor.

Who knows!

[Deja Q]

28. But a valid one.

Nobody wins all the time. Some people lose. It's a crude, gross reality. Better to learn it young.

But at least it's only a spelling bee.

[MindPilot]

9. frustrating to see the kid lose on word even I can spell. n/t

[NoPasaran]

10. Must. Resist. Urge.

To make Beavis & Butthead joke.

[TahitiNut]

13. My mother went to the city level in the 30s. I went at the school district level in the 50s.

I'm far too contrarian to be compliantly compulsive and far too short attention span to be obsessive ... so I passed on doing it further. I just can't see putting so much of one's life into a single activity - it doesn't fit me at all. Indeed, I've personally never found the company of such people to be very interesting over the medium-to-long term. I'm a big fan of multi-disciplinary folks and people with a broad range of curiosities.


On edit: I erred. I apparently DIDN't spell check. (Sigh)

[Clark2008]

15. Did you spell check all that?

:evilgrin:

[TahitiNut]

22. Of course! (grin) Even typing class didn't make me immune to fumble-fingering.

... just like I still make spelling errors. You won't find me confusing "lose" with "loose" or "their" with "they're" or "serious" with the dog star (Lassie?), though.

:evilgrin:

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. It's a monster waste of a child's time that would be better spent

enjoying their too short childhood. But if that's how they choose to spend it, it's up to them.

[Bluebear]

17. Don't be to critical, at least its something for the smart kid's to get involve in.

Kid's only get to shine threw athletic's thsthese day's so its nice to see something else get nationil attention like this. My only complain is that they learn all these word's they will never ever use again, seriesly.

[Codeine]

18. I think it's fantastic.

These kids are developing pride in their intellect and embracing focused study habits that will help them throughout their lives.

[WilliamPitt]

19. One of the better academic competitions ever conceived.

[aikoaiko]

35. totally agree.

[spacelady]

36. Yes! To go to D.C. and compete would be the reward. n/t

[noamnety]

38. Eh, I disagree.

It's the NCLB Standardized Test sort of competition that I dislike, as a teacher and a parent, and an activist. No critical thinking, just a test to see who can memorize the most facts.

There ARE some great competitions, which require creativity + teamwork + science skills + spontaneous problem solving + budgeting + public speaking. I've taken a team to the global finals of one of those sorts of competitions, and it was like a festival, and kids cheered on their competitors and honestly wanted them to do well, and gave each other standing ovations, and ENJOYED their own and others' solutions.

There ARE ways to do competitions where the focus is not on whether you won or lost, but rather on embracing the multitude of diverse ways that people approached identical problems.

[Bitwit1234]

20. A person, no matter how young's, character is formed by

how well they take defeat as well as winning. A person who is a gracious looser will go further in life than one who wins all the time.

A looser strives harder. A winner takes life for granted. And that winner has a worst fall when they finally loose, and make no mistake they will eventually loose.

[AnneD]

23. It skipped me, but......

our family is chocked full of spelling bee champs. It is hard work, strategy, and part luck. I realized that my daughter had the gift when she won 3rd place in our district, beating out 8th graders (she was in the 4th).

The aim was that while we wanted to win, we always wanted to do better than the previous year. She won 3rd the next year-but it was hard, numerous competition. She won and went to regionals in the 6th-and went to the second round. In the 7th, she made it to the regionals and made it to the final round but went out on the third time in the final round.

We stayed and watched the entire regional in the 6th grade-mainly to look at strategy. The next year I drilled her on words, her friends drilled her, even my patients in the Nursing Home drilled her (She gave her district first place ribbon to elderly friends to display in the home-and it was ice cream all 'round).

When it was all said and done-I told her that, even though she didn't win, she had gone the furtherest of us all. I am not one of those give everyone a trophy kind of parents. Yes she shed tears about not winning, but that was a real competition and she learned to suck it up and go on. I told her that just being in the regionals was better than most could hope for and nothing to be ashamed about. She learned poise under extreme pressure, strategy, a love for words, and how to spell potatoes-among other things. We look back with great fondness at our time preparing and participating at the spelling bees.

Edited to add that my daughter will be taking the SAT's this Saturday. We were reminiscing about the bees a while ago. This whole year she has gathered her notes, portioned her time and worked daily on the SAT in some form or fashion. I paid for a class last summer-but she has been doing all this preparation herself...every day. She is very calm (more than I was at her age)about taking it. I really credit this to the skills she learned from preparing for the spelling bees.

[Lex]

26. They asked him to spell Clenis?!!11

What?

:rofl:

[Deja Q]

27. Mommy put in an appeal despite a glaringly obvious error...

And mommy lost, thank goodness.

The fact they all got there means they accomplished something in this world.

[BlooInBloo]

29. He played. He lost. He cried. So what?

[Blue_Tires]

30. having watched espn since the 80s

i cannot for the life of me figure out how stuff like this and poker gets televised...i simply don't see it as sport

[BlooInBloo]

31. They gotta switch it up to "alternative" activities, because most Americans suck at real sports....

... Thus activities like ultimate, disc golf, and the like.

[oberliner]

32. Update: Boy wins spelling bee with 'serrefine'

WASHINGTON - Evan O'Dorney always eats fish before his spelling bees. The brain food apparently has served him well: He's the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion. The 13-year-old from Danville, Calif., aced "serrefine" Thursday night to become the last youngster standing at the 80th annual bee.

He triumphed after a tense duel with Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who was trying to become the first Canadian to win.

Evan won a trophy and a $35,000 prize, plus a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 savings bond and a set of reference works. He said he knew how to spell the winning word — a noun describing small forceps — as soon as the pronouncer said it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070601/ap_on_re_us/spelling_bee;_ylt=AmjSLOIUNEu2g2ZweJMmlsOs0NUE

[lonestarnot]

33. Did anyone bust their ass yet?

At least this contest offers something.

[SidDithers]

37. The problem is the handicapping involved...

So what if Samir has been practicing for 5 years, why are ABC and ESPN ranking a bunch of 13 year olds as "favourite" or "one to watch"? These kids aren't race horses. We don't need Mike and Mike providing play-by-play and colour commentary, as if the competition were the Stanley Cup finals. Allow the kids to compete without all the pressure of having to live up to the expectations foisted upon them by television hosts and observers.

Sid

[onenote]

39. As best I could tell from watching it, the kids seemed to handle it fine

In fact the winner was pretty hilarious, not going along with the interviewers' POV at all!! (The kid basically dissed spelling bees as involving memorization, and stated his preference for math and music. When the interviewer asked him whether, now that he had won, he liked spelling a bit more, he paused, made a couple of faces, asked the interviewer if he was supposed to like it more just because he won and finally, after prodding, suggested that he might like a bit more.