Eighth Grader Wins National Spelling Bee

AP via Yahoo! ^ | Thursday, May 29, 2003 | By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press Writer

[Temple Owl]

YOu should have gone win, place and show.

[aristeides]

I know what "pococurante" means from Italian, but I've never seen the word used in English.

[OldFriend]

Just my two cents......my son in puplic school got a far far better education than my daughter got in private school.

It was the social environment that was not suitable for my daughter.

[truthkeeper]

Great job.

[Destro]

You have to love how the English language just borrows foreign origin words and makes them her own!

[Destro]

To someone who speaks Greek and Latin they wonder what all the fuss is about-these are everyday words to them.

[Alissa]

I heard he attended St. Marks in Dallas. I was quite pleased to learn that of the 2 competitors from San Antonio, one of them attended my granddaughter's school.

[lilylangtree]

I thought I read that the winner was homeschooled but I guess not. However, the runner-up was homeschooled and the winner was in private school. Last year the winner was homeschooled. Does that say something for the public school system? Yo, NEA, for all your liberal touchy feely programs and public monies invested, you're not producing any winners!

[Cagey]

St. Marks School of Texas

[Cagey]

I think I heard the bell that disqualified me...should be Mark's.

[Lunatic Fringe]

A VERY expensive school.

Grade       Total Tuition
8             $16,484

[Aarchaeus]

Heard on news today. Winner was a student at St Mark's Academy, in Dallas.

[Thane_Banquo]

Probably a private Catholic school. I'm guessing all the kids from public school were discqualified when asked to spell constitution. I'm sure they wouldn't have ever seen or heard it before.

[plusone]

How many other languages have Bees? Russian doesn't, there is no need. That language is nearly 100% phonetic. Notice how 'phonetically' is not spelled phonetically? English was invented by accident. (Shakespeare spelled his name a dozen different ways over the course of his life.)

[finnman69]

JUST heard on local NBS news here on this story that 1 in EIGHT of the contestants are homeschooled.

[writmeister]

St. Mark's is a very prestigious non-sectarian private boys' school in Dallas.

I noticed that the winner's mother was a stay-at-home mother. I wonder how many of the past winners had a stay-at-home parent who was there to encourage them to focus on their studies and keep them out of trouble.

[Choose Ye This Day]

But the winner of last week's national geography bee IS homeschooled.

Doth mine eyes deceive me, or is there a trend here?

[Choose Ye This Day]

Off subject: Regarding your tagline--Bob Geldof said that? When? Where? In what context?

I'm simply amazed; I would have pegged him as a raging bleeding heart lefty.

[Spyder]

Grade 8 Total Tuition $16,484

Youch! One of my son's classmates (small private school) was the winner from Hawaii last year, made it to the nationals but not to the final round. We get off cheap at around $5000/year, even with Hawaii's higher cost of living.