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Posted on 01/18/2012 4:28:36 PM PST by nickcarraway
The Lauderhill Spelling Bee has come under controversy after an incident that brought back memories of Dan Quayle’s problem spelling the word potato.
Robert McKenzie said that his daughter was dismissed from the Lauderhill MLK championship spelling bee earlier this week. The controversy centered on the word vacation.
Video posted to YouTube showed McKenzie’s eight-year-old daughter, McKhalia being asked to spell the word vacation.
McKenzie posted the video to YouTube that showed his nine-year-old daughter being asked to spell the word.
McKhaila responded by correctly spelling the word, but she was immediately told it was incorrect in the video.
“I actually thought I got it wrong cause I couldn’t really remember what I said,” recalled McKhaila. “But then, when I went in the room and my dad came in and said I got the word right I started crying, bursting out tears”
McKenzie, who is a teacher at Castle Hill Elementary, immediately brought his video to the judges to protest.
“I’m stunned because I’m thinking to myself, if I can spell it, she can spell it,” he said. “She’s a better speller than me. So I immediately grabbed the camera from my wife. I go outside, look at the tape, I immediately go to the officials. I tell them look my daughter spelled it right. I played the tape for them and they agreed it is correct. But the judges don’t want to listen to it, don’t want to listen to me. They’re shooing me away.”
He wants the mayor to apologize. The mayor declined to comment; but city officials did respond saying they don’t want to make a hasty decision.
They say it will take several days and several people to review the tape.
“I know how hard she worked for this opportunity and I would have rather her lose fairly than lose like this,” said Robert McKenzie.
I coudn't agree more!
Yeah, that kind of stuck out at me too.
Maybe they used the same teachers who handed Dan Quayle a set of spelling word cards including one with the incorrect spelling of the word potato. The media at the event knew this, but didn't bother to make it known in their coverage or since.
Nope. Clear as a bell. She got it right.
I double checked it, and he was right, I had given him two points he did not earn.
I looked up at him and said,"Two points for honesty", and kept the grade as it was.
Not clear at all. She puts a little hiccup into the CEE sound so it could be perceived as CEE-EEE. Listen to it again. VA - pause - CEA - pause - TION. I would have said it was incorrect.
““I’m stunned because I’m thinking to myself, if I can spell it, she can spell it,” he said. “She’s a better speller than me.”
Obviously this young lady was taught PHONICS by her parents (or at least outside of her ‘school’), which is the reason that she can already spell better than her father.
...same problem I have with my kids. I taught them phonics, and immediately they were better spellers than me, and by Age 10, they were much faster readers. Thank goodness I didn’t trust our schools.
(psst...let’s see if the Whole Language crowd shows up now)
Perhaps it was the one who lists Ebonics as their primary language..............
little girl "You'll wish you were on vacation instead of judging this frigging spelling bee when my Daddy sues you."
Ed
I just did. She got robbed.
She should be congratulated since her parents saddled her with such a crappy spelling of her own first name. No doubt she has to spell THAT for people all the time.
WRONG!!
You people don’t know spelling bees and how kids practice for spelling bees.
Each letter is pronounced to a set beat.
V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N
NOT
V-A-CE-A-T-I-O-N
Her C sounds like CeeE but she is not saying the letter E by itself.
She spelled it right.
The judges are MORONS.
just “to teach me that life was not fair”.
Heh - the same thing happened to me. But he marked the entire class wrong. We showed him where he was wrong, etc. He agreed with our arguments and that we were right and that he was wrong. But then he also said he wasn’t going to go change all the grades - “Hey - this is a good lesson for you “Life isn’t fair.” But - it was perhaps one of the most important lessons that I learned in school. (And knowing him, I have a feeling that in the semester grades he did take it into consideration).
People can reed spell checked text so there is know knead too learn how two spell anymore.
I agree.
I listened to it several times and came away with the same impression. I wonder how the judge(s) heard it?
Damn good thing the word wasn’t “Niggardly”....
Also good experience for when she wants to put a partition wall in her basement and realizes she needs a building permit. “Well, 3 months sounds about right - it took several days to look at that video when I was nine.”
Separate CEE and and EEE sounds equals the letters C and E.
The “beat” you speak of is the separation for syllables, but she unfortunately added an unnecessary EEE sound, which equals fail. Listen to it again and you’ll hear the extra EEE sound.
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