“A homeschooled kid can more easily devote his/her full time to studying spelling, and the top finishers probably did just that.”
Reasonable, yes. But, I have met many kids who are being home schooled. There is a pattern of early maturity, compared to kids entrusted to gov’t schools, that is manifestly evident. I don’t think the study time given is really the pivot point of why the stats get skewed towards homeschoolers - I think it has to do with how they learn to win to begin with.
“I don’t think the study time given is really the pivot point of why the stats get skewed towards homeschoolers - I think it has to do with how they learn to win to begin with.”
Homeschooled kids don’t “learn to win” as a factor of being homeschooled.
The underlying factor is that homeschooled kids tend to be more academically successful as a factor of parental involvement, so there is an element of self-selecting statistics. again, not a bad thing, but often the implication is that the simple act of homeschooling will automatically make a child achieve top-honors. The biggest factor in children’s academic success is direct parental involvement. Homeschooling obviously implies that.
Success in the spelling bee has more to do with time devoted in preparation for it, than anything else. For bright kids, taking a year or six months to immerse oneself in vocabulary is a great thing. Chances are they are already advanced in most other subjects that dedicated single-minded focus is not a problem. However, this focus is generally not possible except for homeschool situations. Hence, a higher proportion of homeschoolers and homeschool winners in the spelling bee.
It doesn’t mean that in general bright homeschoolers are any smarter than bright kids in other educational situations, (unless, of course, the parents of said children are on this thread, and then I will agree with them that THEIR children are the absolute smartest out there!)