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."
“Now of the 15 finalists, 5 were home schooled...”
congratulations to the kid.....however, one must put some reasonableness into the conclusions. A homeschooled kid can more easily devote his/her full time to studying spelling, and the top finishers probably did just that.
Other kids, depending on education mode, likely didn’t have as much time to devote to it, so statistics on the spelling bee probably skew towards homeschoolers.
This is a statistics observation, not a statement for or against any particular form of education.
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Actually, homeschooling is the best and most natural way to raise up a child.
Those who send their children to school ( especially government school) should be justifying why their family circumstances are so dysfunctional or stressed that they must institutionalize their child.
Read this today in the morning paper- No mention that he was home schooled.
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If the homeschooler has more time, it means the institutionalized child is wasting precious time out of his life by being herded about like cattle in his school, and on buses.
When I drive by a school playground, I am reminded of herds of sheep. When I see kids on a school bus, I think cattle truck.
“It is becoming plainly evident that homeschooling is the superior way to educate and raise up a child.”
Certainly works for many, and should be encouraged for those parents that have the ability to do so. Not sure you can make the extrapolation apply to all students across all demographics, like, for an extreme instance, our soon to be legalized illegal underclass.
“If the homeschooler has more time, it means the institutionalized child is wasting precious time out of his life by being herded about like cattle in his school, and on buses.”
The point is that winning the spelling be takes hard work and single-minded focus over a period of time. This requirement self-selects for a higher homeschool population.
“institutionalized”, “cattle”, “sheep” - a bit harsh in your description, in my opinion.
I am eternally grateful to our almighty God for giving my grandson these special gifts as he was diagnosed as autistic as a little boy. He does another math competition tomorrow.
I hope they have many more children.
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It “self-selects” because homeschoolers have more time than institutionalized children. More time is good. Wasted time means wasted life opportunities.
And,,it is a shame that illegal immigrants have difficulty with English. These children have less than ideal educational circumstances and will need to be institutionalized.
As for the words, “institutionalized, sheep, and cattle”: The liberal/Marxists learned long ago that he who controls the language wins.
I started homeschooling in the mid-1980. In those days homeschoolers were continually having to justify and explain their decision. Today, we have moved to the point where most people feel that parents should choose what is best for their family.
Homeschooling for those who have the circumstances really is the better way to educate a child. It is now time for those institutionalizing their child ( especially those in government schools) to explain just what is so dysfunctional about their family that they must do this to their child.
Our family gets really involved in watching these spelling bees. We watch every televised moment and even watch reruns. Thanks to ABC for televising this in primetime.
When in holy hell did Canada take part in America’s National spelling bee?????
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To show them canucks that we can kick their asses in that category, too.
The canucks keep losing because while they are spelling the word, at the end of the string of letters, they say “eh?” and the judge assumes they just added the letter “a”.
They've been in the American League and used to be in the National league for years, not to mention the National Basketball Association.
There are also Canadians in the National Hockey League, but that's more a matter of us participating in their "national" institution.
I should loan you my “Schwa — it’s not just an upside down e” shirt!
:)
Legendary Kenyan distance runner Kip Keno won three Meredes at three different track meets. Later, when a reporter visited his home for an interview, not a Mercedes was to be seen. Why? asked the incredulous reporter. "Because one does not remain a distance runner by riding around in a mercedes." He had given the cars away.
Blame it on dolphin tainted tuna.
It's a useful skill. Just one of many, but useful. The National Geographic Geography Bee probably tests skills that will be more important later in life, not to mention math competitions. And robotics competitions -- those are amazing to watch. The spelling bee has a longer history, though, and more parents who remember their own participation.
At any rate, spelling -- and learning etymologies, which is a head start to both figuring out unfamiliar words and learning other languages -- are far more useful skills than being able to run fast, hit a baseball or put a ball through a hoop. And I salute first ESPN and then ABC for giving prime time air to a competition that rewards studying. It's a good thing for the kids in the audience to see.
To some degree, it also means you were lucky. A recent champ, maybe last year’s, I can’t remember, said there were numerous words she couldn’t have spelled, but none were given to her. If one of those words had fallen on her turn, she would have been out.
Luck definitely plays a factor in any competition -- the only way to avoid that would be to put everyone in an isolation booth and give everyone the same words. I take part in a lot of trivia contests, and there's always an element of chance in whether we happen to get questions we know.
But luck tends to even out over time, and every kid who made it to the finals -- maybe every kid who made it to the nationals -- is in the top percentile.
“Do you have any other hobbies besides peeing in cornflakes?”
Nope, bring your bowl on over.
Microsoft developed the spell checker just for me....
I’m going through the spelling tribulations with my six year old right now. It is very difficult explaining why a sentence like, “The tough coughs as he ploughs the dough,” can be spelled and pronounced the way it does.
However, I do believe that there is no such thing as the ability to “properly anglicize” new words. Just look at the root word of what you say in “anglicize” and you should see why that just isn’t kosher.
My limited knowledge of linguistics tells me that the English language carries much of its/our history in its spelling and pronunciation. To change it would toss much of that out the door.
Is your daughter going to try for the National Spelling Bee contest? I know she won a big one locally in St. Louis.
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