[DannyTN]

So the way to build self esteem is to never let the kids compete?

What happens to their self esteem when they enter the real world?

[antiRepublicrat]

I studied my butt off to get in a district spelling bee in the fifth grade. I made it quite a ways, but I didn't win. Did I feel like a loser for that? Hell no, I was proud to have been selected, then to have made it that far.

Every kid who even gets into a spelling bee is a winner, a concept lost on these PC idiots.

[seamus]

It is so obvious that the school administrators used Bush's education initiative as an excuse to cancel a popular local event just so they could stick a thumb into his eye. EVERY public school teacher I've talked to in the last year absolutely hates Bush's NCLB plan, and mock him and it.

What really gets them upset is that Bush has taken a lot of their teaching freedom away -- and for good reason, because, in general, it was not getting results. This was the only way the school could get back at him. I know many administrators are idiots, but even they are not stupid enough to actually believe the logic they put forward in this story and with those ridiculous quotes.

This is all a power-play. A way to embarass Bush. Guess what, dummies. You failed.

[aspiring.hillbilly]

Have the educators of the nation lost their collective minds, this kind of thinking is the reason I am opposed to female teachers and worse yet,female administrators, its the women in education who consistently come up with this crap!!! If education wasn't female dominated it would not be like this!! Women should be wholesale tossed out of eduction before they ruin the nation...

[evets]

... because there can only be one winner

[JZelle]

My brother WON a spelling bee and he ended up on drugs, so I don't think a spelling bee would have that much effect on self-esteem.

[JoeV1]

You have to build positive self-esteem for all kids, so they believe they’re all winners," she said. "You want to build positive self-esteem so that all kids can get to where they want to go."

+++Thrown into a highly competitive world, totally unprepared for the reality that no one gives a flying sh*t about their self esteem will insure these poor kids go through their pitiful lives confused and depressed.

Imagine their reaction when their boss denies them a raise and a promotion without the least thought for their precious self esteem.

[Millicent_Hornswaggle]

Good grief! My family wonders why I homeschool. Here is a prime example of the people in control of the public school system. Don't teach your child to excel and be the best he can be. Teach him to be one of the crowd around the middle. Critism done in kindness does a lot more for a child's character than letting him always win.

[kittymyrib]

I think it's probably because all the home-schooled or Indian students win all the time. Thankfully, in Texas we still have a chance for elementary school students to excel in all kinds of academic and sports competitions. That's what makes our kids great later on.

[Lazamataz]

A spelling bee, she continued, is about "some kids being winners, some kids being losers." As a result, the spelling bee "sends a message that this isn’t an all-kids movement," Newman said.

I will not be satisfied until liberals are collected and put into vast death camps that run night and day.

When this comes to pass, I will stand at the Arbet Macht Frei sign at the entrance and laugh at the losers inside.

Because they will have lost. And I will have won. This isn't an all-politics country.

[Flightdeck]

Ayn Rand is rolling in her grave.

[yatros from flatwater]

We're not far from Harrison Bergeron.

[shellshocked]

""It’s about one kid winning, several making it to the top and leaving all others behind. That’s contrary to No Child Left Behind," Newman said. "

They are being sarcastic at the expense of the children. Liberals are all about emotional knee-jerk reactions and never about facts.

[LaBradford22]

Something like this should never, EVER be posted without a serious self-esteem barf alert attached to it.

[shellshocked]

They should also cancel "administrators" as not everyone gets to be one of those idiots, either.

[Alouette]

I've noticed lately that a lot of published books contain more and more spelling, grammar and punctuation errors.

[Cowboy Bob]

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Linda Newman said the decision to scuttle the event was reached shortly after the January 2004 bee in a unanimous decision by herself and the district’s elementary school principals.

Any pictures of these losers?

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Oh brother!

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

A spelling bee, she continued, is about "some kids being winners, some kids being losers."

So is life you beanheaded Liberal, union hack. What do you suppose the kids are learning by your example?

Oh, but pardon me. Your job, Mzzzz Newman, isn't to educate...it's to indoctrinate.

[Ditto]

The administrators agreed, Newman said, that a spelling bee doesn’t meet the criteria of all children reaching high standards -- because there can only be one winner, leaving all other students behind.

What totally convoluted logic. No child left behind means they will be able to read at grade level, not that they will become a spelling bee champ, or even want to participate in one.

In general, I don't rant about public schools. I know some are horrible and need to be shut down to protect the children they are damaging. Others, including the system my children went to are actually quite good.

But if this is what passes for logic in that school district, I would pull my kids out immediately.

I suspect something else going on here. This sorry excuse just does not pass the smell test. Maybe a slap at Bush. Maybe fear that they don't have sufficient minorities that can compete in a spelling bee or maybe the opposite, a certain unfavored minority group that runs away with top honors.