[gobucks]

ABC Televised it live and it ended about a half hour ago: the boy hugged his Mom and Dad ... and the reporter noted that Evan was the third home schooler to win this event.

[Secret Agent Man]

“The Scripps NATIONAL Spelling bee”......

When in holy hell did Canada take part in America’s National spelling bee????? What the frick???

[NormsRevenge]

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.

—

What?
No iPod or Blackberry or PS2?

Great job, Evan!

[EagleUSA]

Clearly, a product of a private school....(/s)

[abigailsmybaby]

I don’t even know how to pronounce it.

[krb]

[kaboom]

Good thing this kid is homeschooled. Knowing how to spell a word like that will get you beat up in public schools.

As they always say "Chicks dig the Scripps!".

[gracesdad]

The problem with the spelling bee is that it proves nothing whatsoever about intelligence or what education system is best.

Being a championship speller doesn’t mean you can write a meaningful essay about anything or that you will save the world from whatever. All it means is that you spent incredible amounts of time memorizing lists and that you understand how words are put together. You are exceptional in some areas, but what does it mean in the end?

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.

[VOA]

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.

[Huck]

Spelling is SOOOOO 20th century.

[burzum]

Spelling bees just show how much we need a spelling reform to the English language. Spanish speakers would laugh at the notion of a spelling bee since almost every word in Spanish can be written out based on how it is pronounced following a couple trivial rules. I think it is silly that we spend so much time teaching students to memorize how to spell all of our archaic words when we could instead be teaching them the meanings. Shin, nation, special, mission, expansion, tissue, machine, sugar, conscience, ocean, schmooze, and crescendo are all valid ways to make the 'sh'(/ʃ/) sound. So, bone, boat, know, soul, foe, brooch, beau, oh, sew, mauve, pharaoh, furlough, yeoman are all valid ways to make the hard 'o'(/o/) sound. This is idiocy.

[Our man in washington]

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!”

[Theresawithanh]

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

[politicket]

We had the privilege of sitting next to, and visiting, with the O'Dorney's during the closing dinner of the 2005 National Spelling Bee. My son was there representing Colorado (also a homeschooler).

The O'Dorney's are a great family and Evan is a really neat kid!

Congratulations Evan!!!!

[GOP_Raider]

The 13-year-old from Danville, Calif

Hey, I used to live there!

[dighton]

Boy Wins Spelling Bee With ‘Serrefine’

Conductor Tullio Serafin Denounces Verdict: ‘Fix Was In’

[PJ-Comix]

Is your daughter going to try for the National Spelling Bee contest? I know she won a big one locally in St. Louis.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“...and the reporter noted that Evan was the third home schooler to win this event.”

One of our local home-schooled girls did very well in this, too. She dropped out in the round before this and the local radio morning host also made a big deal of the fact that she was home schooled and was very complimentary about it; much to the chagrin of the looney leftists around here, LOL!

Nothing like sticking it to ‘Publik Skrewel’ wherever we can, IMHO. :)

[Marysecretary]

Hooray for homeschoolers! He sounds like a fine young man and somewhat of a genius.

[Clintonfatigued]

It’s interesting how Homeschooled students keep winning these things. They win spelling Bees far out of proportion to their share of the American population of children as a whole.

I think that this is yet another reason to homeschool.

[RKBA Democrat]

I heard about the spelling bee on the leftmedia radio a couple of times. There was nothing said about whether he was home educated or not. So I immediately suspected that he was.