Stephen Hawking must be one proud dad!
Instead, he is HOMESCHOOLED by his mother...I wonder why that didn't get mentioned?!
BTW, I did a google search for the boys' name and the phrase "homeschool"...the ONLY reference I found was by the San Jose Mercury News--which looks like it is the closest thing to a "big" newspaper near Evan's hometown of Danville!
Here is the link and appropriate phrase in that article:
Danville kid snags national spelling bee title with "serrefine"
Quote:
As Evan hoisted his trophy, his mother Jennifer and father Michael beamed from the audience. Jennifer, who is his homeschool teacher and devoted herself to helping him prepare, blinked back tears.
/s
I watched the spelling bee itself, and they mentioned it there. It was a pretty amazing performance by a pretty amazing kid. I think he knew all the words, didn’t have to sound anything out. At the end he said spelling is just massive memorization. I think this kid memorized thousands and thousands of difficult words and had all bases covered going into the match. Totally amazing.
First of all it isn't MSNBC that you were scolding, but an AP report on an MSNBC web page. So, you can't blame MSNBC here. It is an AP story.
Second, the AP has several other versions of the story where they plainly mention the kid was home-schooled.
I saw that the Washington Post doesn't mention the kid is home-schooled, but who is surprised there?
But, just about every other story I saw mentions the kid was home-schooled.
So, your feeling that home schooling is being ignored or slighted in this case doesn't seem warranted.
When the show ran on ESPN, it indicated that he was homeschooled. Still, I wonder what the breakdown is on private, public, charter and homeschooled contestants.
Venture, which serves nearly 600 students annually, is a kindergarten through 12th grade and adult alternative public school dedicated to Independent Study and Home Schooling. When it was established in 1978 it was a radical idea, but as increasing numbers of students (and parents) discovered the enriching and challenging Venture educational option, the award-winning program gained wide acceptance.
Did you see Evan's parents? His father operates a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train and his mother stays at home and is his teacher. They aren't -- as far as I know -- degreed medical, engineering, or legal professionals, they appear to be a regular middle class couple who produced a bespectacled genius right out of Revenge of the Nerds. Good for them!
BTW -- check out the video link on the MSNBC page for the story of the mustachioed Indian immigrant contestant whose parents were deported. There's so much crying in that story that I had to wipe off my monitor. You know the MSM (and Karl Rove) was hoping that kid would win so he could be a PR boost for the amnesty bill.
Did it have relevance to the story? No! Do they mention if a kid who won a football game was homeschooled or private school or public school...no. He is a kid who happens to memorize a list of words and spells them. Congratulations to him, but let’s not go crazy here. They could have picked a better picture of him too. He looks like a geek in that picture.
http://www.venture.srvusd.k12.ca.us/about-venture/howven.asp
I attended public school.
Of course there is no mention of home schooling. ‘Don’t want to make the public school kids feel inferior or less educated, do you?
7 o’clock abc radio news reported him as homeschooled
We watched it last night, and the commentators mentioned that he was homeschooled by his mom...haven’t read newspaper accounts.
My wife and I watched the blurb on Fox News this morning. I told her I bet the kid is a homeschooler. But you’re right, they never said a word about that. Instead they spent 5 minutes making jokes about the word he spelled.
Stephen Hawking must be one proud dad!
The local contestant from St. Louis that didn’t make it past round 6 went to a private school that costs probably $30,000/yr. Ooops...money can’t buy everything!
They did mention it, along with the fact taht he was the third home-schooled child to win the competition. They mentioned it near the end of the program.
That he is homeschooled is mentioned in nearly every radio news on the hour.