Eighth Grader Wins National Spelling Bee

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

[r9etb]

If it is not a home taught student winning these things, it is a private taught student.

A couple of years ago, a local public school kid won it. His younger, also public-schooled, brother won the state bee this year, and I believe he competed at nationals.

Let's not let our enthusiasms get the best of us.... ;-)

[r9etb]

Public schools do not teach to learn, they do not teach to think.

One must be careful not to overgeneralize, don't you think?

[hellinahandcart]

Hey, thanks for responding to my post after a pause of only 347 days. I've been waiting here without food or water for someone to ping me back on that.

You can blame the Insider Troll for that (see #s 62 & 63). It came here pretending to have participated in that spelling bee, and in so doing, bumped the thread back into Latest Posts.

It always resurrects old threads. We have no idea why.

[Old Professer]

I am wreatched at spelling

Yep.

[Rummyfan]

Evelyn Blacklock, a 14-year-old eighth-grader who is home-schooled in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., was the runner-up.

Hurray for home schoolers!

[Guillermo]

I'm sure the NEA is opposed to these spelling bee's because "not everyone can win" and that they lower the "self-esteem" of the non-winners.

[Guillermo]

I wonder how invloved his parents are in his schooling.

I wonder if the parents blame the school or their teachers whenever they get in trouble.

I wonder if their parents reward them by allowing them to have purple mohawks when they behave properly...

[ladylib]

I don't think they're happy that homeschoolers are permitted to participate because all homeschoolers do all day is sit home and prepare for the spelling bee while public school kids have to attend class.

[Guillermo]

Of course, and study for the SAT all day, because, homeschoolers score much higher on that test as well.

[Hildy]

LOL! What did she do, was it really embarrassing???

[ladylib]

They score higher on the ACT too.

[CyberCowboy777]

Children who can learn and think while in public school do so in spite of public school.

The system is designed to create cogs, in spite of that the human spirit endures, just as it has always done.

[Guillermo]

Well of course! After all, they do nothing but study for specific tests...is it any wonder they do better?

I bet if there was a test on the UN, Earth Day, Tolerance and Multiculturalism, public school students would rout homeschoolers.

[End Times Sentinel]

In fact I was in that spelling bee as well, but it was a complete sham.  Having shown my spelling acumen with such words as apoplexy, eunuch, and George Stephanopolis, I was given the word “tit-mouse” in the 11^th round.  I was unable to spell it in continuous tries due to my incurable case of the giggles. 

 That, coupled with the fact that I was taught all my spelling in my civics class.  It did impinge on the time that we’d normally spend learning about the founding fathers, the different amendments to The Constitution, the separation of powers, you know, the trivial little stuff that one picks up on just by watching the ABC World News Tonight.

Owl_Eagle

”Unleash the Hogs of Peace.”
P.J. O'Rourke Parliament of Whores

[CyberCowboy777]

Lets not let our apathy get the best of us.... ;-)

The system is broke, despite those that break free, the sooner we accept that the sooner we can rebuild.

[Flightdeck]

She kept covering her face and making weird motions and noises. It sounded like that movie where Jodie Foster invents her own language. When the semi-legible letters did come out, they were always sang at a different note to create some strange kind of song. I think her parents were performing psychological experiments on her for their research or something.

[ladylib]

I bet they would too, heh, heh, heh.

Lot of good it will do them in the long run.

[stands2reason]

I'm the same way. Excellent speller, but I never got past my school in the Spelling Bee.

I learn visually. That's just the way I've always been. I can't get directions by people telling me, they have to write it down, or I use a map. I didn't absorb teacher's lectures too well -- I usually had a friend that would take notes and I would read them, or just the material that the lecture was based on.

[Hildy]

Oh my, it sounds HORRIBLE! (Wish I had seen it!).