Homeschoolers dominate spelling bees (Some see unfair advantage)

- When Rebecca Sealfon won the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in 1997, she launched a trend.

Since Sealfon glued thousands to their television sets to watch her nervously spell her way to triumph, two other students who have been home-schooled for all or part of their academic careers have followed her to victory.

In 2000, the final three finishers - winner George Thampy of Maryland Heights, Mo., runner-up Sean Conley of Shakopee, Minn., and third-place finisher Alison Miller of Niskayuna, N.Y., were home-schooled. Conley - who attended a Minnesota school the next year - won the bee in 2001.

This year's National Spelling Bee is set for May 29-30 in Washington, D.C. Some areas have yet to determine who they will send to the bee.

But with the trend of home-schooled champs - Thampy was a runner-up in the National Geographic Bee, sponsored by the National Geographic Society- has come muted criticisms from those who say home-schooled students have the advantage because they can spend more time studying spelling during their school days.

Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said that in some instances, home-schooling parents emphasize memorization more than schools do - another reason home-schoolers have found success in the bee.

Houston said that having a few home-schooled bee champs does not necessarily show the superiority of home-schooling. Saying one child's triumph is evidence of the success of home-schooling, he said, is like saying all North Carolina colleges are good because basketball champion Michael Jordan attended one.

"I think home-schoolers have a lot of things they can point to as successes that are far more important than whether they do well in the spelling bee," he said.

According to Scripps Howard bee rules, students must not eschew normal school activity in favor of preparation for spelling bees. Bee director Paige Kimble admits it's a hard rule to enforce, but "we have never had any single thought or occasion to believe home-schoolers or their parents were being irresponsible about their education."

"You're just talking about the nature of the beast," she said. "Of course that rankles those parents who send their kids off to public and private school. But what's the answer - it's gross, blatant discrimination to say no home-schooled kids at all."

Kimble said that home-schooled kids do have an advantage "in that their time and how it is structured is entirely up to them."

Mona Goldstein knows both sides of the debate. She has four children and three have participated in the National Spelling Bee. The youngest, Amanda, is not old enough to compete.

Her oldest child, Amy, who attended a private school, used to refer to studying her spelling as "playing." Her third child, JJ, who will compete at the national bee this year, is more interested in practicing diving. She is home-schooled.

"I don't think she has necessarily studied any more because she's home-schooled," Goldstein said, adding that most parents of bee participants are very involved in their children's education, whether the child attends home school, private school or public school.

About 2 million students across the nation are home-schooled today, and the rate is growing by 15 percent to 20 percent a year, according to Rob Ziegler, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association in Purcellville, Va. Home-schoolers have been involved in spelling bees for 20 years.

"Home-schooling works because of the great teacher-student ratio, the personal attention, the flexible schedule - those things can help in any academic area, including spelling," he said, citing triumphs in the geography bee as another example of academic strengths. "It's pretty clear across the board that academically, it works."

Vonnie Crumpton, of the Big Country Home Educators of Abilene, Texas, said the schedule flexibility is one reason home-schooled kids succeed academically. Her son was interested in classical music, and his home-school education allotted him plenty of time to practice.

"Yes, we get math and English and grammar and everything, every day," she said, "but we had more time to dedicate to the talents that God has given him...that's the beauty of home-schooling. You can spend more time where they have interests."

I have a note I keep on my bulletin board as a reminder of what "great" education we have in our country. A teacher with a masters degree gave the following note to a friend of mine when giving instructions on a woodworking project.

Be shure to pre dril befor nailing.

That is so sad I can't even qualify it as funny.

You are absolutely correct, especially on the socialization issue. My sister's little girl has plenty of "socialization" opportunities while she's being homeschooled. As it turns out, several other families in their church homeschool, so they have regular get-togethers of children of the same approximate age, where they do something educational. For example, my sister might have them over to her 200-year-old log house and the girls will don colonial-style hats, have a history lesson and do some craft related to the period, e.g., make the kind of toy children their age played with in 18th-century Pennsylvania. Succeeding at homeschooling takes effort, creativity and commitment, but it's worth it.

Yes! This is unfair!! We should conduct spelling bees fairly. Since Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have ignored this problem, I guess it's up to me to propose just rules:

1. For homeschooled children all words must be 10 letters or more. Example: chrysanthemum.

2. For privately schooled children, words of 8 letters or more.

3. For public school children, words of 6 letters or less.

4. For public school children from an economically disadvanted area, words of 3 letters or less. Example: cat.

I don't think the fault lies with teachers.

They have unwaveringly supported their union, the National Education Association, and liberal democrat politicians which have wrought much of the problems facing schools today. They've made their bed - now they can lie in it.

Houston said that having a few home-schooled bee champs does not necessarily show the superiority of home-schooling.

Hmmm. If public school kids were winning spelling bees over the home schooled kids, do you think the NEA would be saying, "Having public school bee champs does not show the superiority of public schooling."

Couple things you miss though xzins. Some areas actually do allow homeschoolers to be a part of athletic competition and even if they don't, some homeschoolers opt to ps just for that if they are talented at it. Besides that it's not hard to find classes and private organizations with which children can have athletic activity. In fact, we were just eyeing a class that gears towards K-4 for BASKETBALL!! And then a group from 5-8 that actually competes, this is not a part of the ps!!! Oppurtunities like this are out there if you look and if you live in a larger community! I absolutely believe that there is not a disadvantage in the subjects you mentioned in a larger metropolis area. And the disadvantage in rural areas, is usually a similar disadvantage in the ps in those same areas because of number of students, funds, etc.

As for higher science and math, it's important to point out that parents who aren't proficient can supplement such subjects with tutors or co-ops, entrance into the ps high schools, or community college classes.

You just haven't been creative enough or done enough research if you think homeschoolers are limited by being home even in athletics or higher math and science. This just isn't the case and the beauty of homeschooling is once high school years hit and a child shows an obvious talent or proficiency for something, they can devote more time and attention to it, actually making them the superior candidates in the long run. Just a few random thoughts;-)

Almost all your students memorized pi to 100 digits? You amaze me. Not only have I never memorized it beyond 3.1415927, but I don't know where to go to find it listed beyond just a couple more digits than that.

I suppose if I remembered my calculus, I could remember how to construct an infinite series that would allow me to calculate pi to any desired degree of exactitude. But I don't remember enough to do that.

I respectfully disagree. The leadership has faithfully followed the power-structure. The rank and file simply want to teach, and have learned that those who do not 'go with the (union) flow' are treated differently. Those (like me) who occasionally take a stand or try to high-light some particular instance of stupidity (I'll detail another one below) find themselves VERY lonely. As with any union, any non-vote is usually considered a vote of support for the union position... and that simply isn't so. (I've been a member of two other unions, and my brother is a 'lifer'. There is a huge number of dissenters. They usually aren't allowed a voice, though.

Idiotic educrat policies, take 2: Governor O'Bannon (IN-D) wants to be the 'education governor' (dont they all?). He addresses Indiana's weak standardized testing scores (usually in the low 40's out of 50 states) as the main indicator. His lame solution, as with so many others, is to change the test (as if that changes the amount of learning, or the quality of students produced). The moronic part: he decides that we should have 'the highest state standards in the nation'... making the test more difficult... which will, of course, result in lower standardized test scores. The educational process for children remains unchanged, and the test scorres will go down as an inevitable result of his own plan. Yep, that's MY governor! *sigh*

You just haven't been creative enough or done enough research if you think homeschoolers are limited by being home even in athletics or higher math and science.

Actually, I haven't done one whit of RESEARCH on this. Therefore, it all falls under the heading of my far-reaching, agile CREATIVITY of mind. (I speculated on this...LOL.)

Nonetheless, my frau is a high school teacher. I've watched the distance courses in higher subjects, and they simply don't work.

A co-op IS an institutional school. Why institutional schools were devised in the first place.

I've been a long-time fan of high school athletics. There is no community or pick-up league that even comes close to the competitive opportunities granted kids in the state high school athletic associations.

I'm not saying that local little league isn't a good thing, but baseball is far, far and away the best of the available athletic opportunities outside of highschool athletics. Nothing else compares to it. But it grows out of baseball having been our "national" sport for years with great interest at every level.

And if a homeschooler puts their kids in high school athletics, then they're turning again to institutional education. I don't mind that. I just think we should call it what it is.

Thanks! Well, we did take a week to go over the mnemonic devices, and the first 120 decimal places were printed at the top of a worksheet, mostly as a snazzy graphic to liven up the page. I just took it and made it important. =^)

The most common method was memorizing a chunk of 15+ numbers each day, and adding it to the prevoious day. My favorites were the "poems" (some are available online, going as far as 740 places, others were actually made by my students). The trick is that the first word has 3 letter, then next has 1 letters, then 4 letters, then 1, then 5... "Did I pass a truck Wednesday?" gives 3.14159. Memorizing the poem seemed much easier for those who tried it. (Most of the boys were turned off by the idea of reading poetry, of course, LOL). The most creative I had was a the girl who went to 245 decimal places (tops for that class). She wrote a song (the tune was akin to a military cadence), but it contained several groups of explicit numbers, references to addresses, zip codes, area codes, musical groups, etc. I'm still not sure how some of her associations worked, but they worked for her, and that's all that's important.

Excellent reply!

"...there has obviously been some wretched breakdown in communication between the 3rd-5th grade math teachers, because I would be willing to bet that 75% of my kids do not know the 12x12 multiplication tables by heart. I have been including it in as many lessons and quizzes as possible, but they simply use fast addition to fill in the chart (add 4 to every subsequent number in the 4x column, etc), rather than actually memorizing the products."

I've seen that myself! I tutor inner city kids (K-6) in an afterschool care program and you are right - about 75% of 4th and 5th graders do not know their multiplication facts. Actually many don't even know addition and subtraction facts and do a lot of counting on their fingers! I and the other volunteers are working on this problem, but it's slow going. Of course the kids always want to use a calculator (we don't let them).

We have two bright home-schooled children staying with us over Easter. What a treat to be with them. They are intelligent, articulate, polite, loving, and interested in everything.

My daughter, (homeschooled since the 4th grade and about to graduate HS)was visiting a youth church service with a friend, and after about an hour the youth pastor asked her if she was a "homeschooler". He said he could tell because of her politness, her speech and actions compared to the other teenagers, that are in public school. He said he can usually spot the homeschooled teenagers.

I don't think most home school parents have the background in calculus, advanced science and art, nor do they have the facilities (labs) to make these things readily available to home schooled kids. Maybe computers will change that, but every "long distance" or "computer" class I've seen doesn't compare to a knowledgeable teacher who is PRESENT for questions and guidance.

My family is fortunate because my husband is brilliant in math and science. He teaches my son in the evenings. He and my son enjoy this interaction. My son scored a near perfect on his SAT's regarding those subjects. (My son just turned 14.) We know homeschooling parents that aren't as proficient in math and/or science, but their kids do just fine by utilizing used textbooks, the internet, software programs, science museum seminars or hiring a tutor. (My husband tutors one of my son's friends in math.)

My husband was never that keen on biology so he has our son attend a Santa Rosa Junior College course. My son will probably take a chemistry course next year even though he and his Dad have set up a pretty good lab in the garage.

Of course, not all homeschooling families can afford tutors, expensive software or internet courses, but somehow they manage. If their child is motivated and talented in certain subjects, all sorts of options (and blessings in regards to funding) open up! I've seen this happen time and time again.

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