Spelling Bees

Question: What is the purpose of spelling bees?

Answer/Quote: “Perhaps no other public exhibition typifies the traditional image of education better than the spelling bee. Somewhere in the collective cultural conscious is the tableau of two diminutive finalists dueling it out center stage for the glory of being the best speller in Our Little House of the Prairie Elementary School and for the recognition that comes with it. We tend to see this competition over who can spell the most unused words the best as evidence of our successful struggle for academic excellence.” P. 55.

Comment: I hate spelling bees. I was never good at competitive spelling. I have enough trouble remembering the difference between “believe” and “receive” without adding the pressure of competitive spelling, especially when the words to be spelled are the likes of “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”The point of this article is “What’s in it for the losers?” And I add, what’s in it for the winners? One helluva lot of wasted time memorizing words that no one will probably ever use. RayS.

Title: “The Game Game.” Ralph Maltese. English Journal (January 1995), 55-58.