Posted on 05/31/2007 7:46:53 PM PDT by gobucks
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 won a tense duel with Nate Gartke of Spruce Grove, Alberta, who was trying to become the first Canadian to win the bee.
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.
Evan said he wasn't surprised to win, but he confessed that spelling isn't his top interest.
"My favorite things to do were math and music, and with the math I really like the way the numbers fit together," he said. "And with the music I like to let out ideas by composing notes - and the spelling is just a bunch of memorization."
I think that O’Dorney didn’t fair well in the handicapping of the top-five
contenders as picked on ESPN Radio’s morning show (Mike and Mike).
They didn’t like O’Dorney being honest that that he could just as well
lose the Bee as win it. I guess he just didn’t have that jock “self-confidence
self-talk” they prize in athletes.
Yosenabe is an English word? Wow!
Home school victory ping:
5/15 finalists were home schoolers, and a home schooler won it .... again.
LOL, I noticed that right away too, and guess that Samurai too must be ‘english’ now. (Btw, if you know of other movies of the caliber of “Twilight Samurai”, please let me know if you have a moment. Most of the sword flicks are awful, but I have rented this one again it is that good.)
“Being a championship speller doesn’t mean you can write a meaningful essay about anything ..... “
I guess you missed the part where he was at the SF Conservatory with a group of fellow students playing his composition ? Or talking about the piano concerto he wrote ? Or about his writing his compositions (notes) in numerical formulas? This kid was not just lucky ... he has a brilliant mind that goes beyond memorization.
This kid also has a black belt in karate, so that’s another whole area of expertise and discipline. And he’s what? 14? He comes from a middle class family and was given a great gift from his Creator that he is using.
Let’s not be so cynical and cheer him on.
The guy from ABC did everything to elicit some kind of big emotional response from this kid, who all along said spelling wasn’t that big a deal. After he was goaded about how he felt now that he actually won it, this extremely poised kid asked him right back “Are you asking me if I like spelling anymore than before?” Nope, Math was still his love...
Very impressive kid.
His dad drives a train for a living....I’m guessing that provides a very grounded foundation for life in his home, but one can’t be sure of course.
As for developing a sense of humor .... I’m guessing he’s chuckling a bit in his hotel room right now..
Spelling is SOOOOO 20th century.
I bet the National Education Association will now demand changes so that the public schoolers have a chance.
“Julie, your word is cat.”
“K-e—sorry, I don’t know the rest.”
“How do you feel about your answer?”
“Great!”
“If you feel good, then we feel good. You get to go to second round!”
I do wish the best for the kid and expect him to be grounded and successful.
My favorite is Steven Pinker asking how to pronounce “ghoti”
It’s FISH
gh as in laugh
o as in women
and ti as in nation
As a speech/language pathology major (and an English/Linguistics minor) it is so much fun to mess with my friend’s heads in class *giggles*
Orthography is not my specialization ... but English is an exceptional language.
I saw a boy lose out on the spelling of Marielito. We were surprised to see a Cuban refugee boat lift word among the english words.
I have to confess I take a bit of delight imagining all the conversations in public school teachers lounges tomorrow regarding the unfair outcome of the bee....
My hope is that some of those teachers will be motivated to ask themselves a simple question: why should home schooling have this much of a disproportionate impact, given how small a percentage of total kids they are?
If we were to reform our spelling, we would lose much meaning. How would you differentiate between sight, site, cite, and cyte?
Wow! Congratulations to Master O’Dorney!
On sort of a related note, but more of a grammar issue, a car passed me on the road yesterday, and written on the back window was “We’re smarter then you!” Wanted to pull up next to them and say, “Oh no you’re not!” ;-p
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary.” — James D. Nichol
This is part of why English is successful—it integrates words with ease. But this doesn’t mean that the rest of the language has to be so haphazardly designed, nor does it mean that we can’t properly anglicize the new words.
That’s why it’s a “spelling bee” not a “who is the smartest” contest. Whoever spells the best wins the..you know..spelling bee.
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