2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee

[SeaDogStat]

My buddy's daughter has made it to the semifinals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee

http://public.spellingbee.com/public/results/2011/round_results/speller/98

Lily is one of 41 trying to make the Finals (10-12 contestants) tonight. It is on ESPN right now.

Good luck Lily!

[SeaDogStat]

She is in round 7 (18 spellers left) unk:



And through to round 8....correctly spelling "dolichopodous"

[Piney Boy]

Yikes her Rd 5 word was worse:

batrachophagous

[SeaDogStat]

Yikes her Rd 5 word was worse:

batrachophagous

C'mon...feeding on frogs.....everyone knows that one... :explode:

[SeaDogStat]

I think if one of the last two misspell, that will be the end and the finalists set (12 max)

[SeaDogStat]

She made the Finals! Congrats Lily! Thirteen finalists tonight on ESPN...

[B-Fly]

Sweet!

[Trautdiggity]

Not to take anything away from Lilly (and congrats to her) but anybody else feel like this thing is fairly useless (and now annoying by the way it's gotten blown out of proportion)?

Hear me out - it's a similar argument that is currently raging about whether handwriting should be taught in schools: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html

With the development of electronic communications, the ability to spell flawlessly has become far less important. In many situations, as long as you're close, you can be corrected automatically. If you're not even sure if you have the word correct, you can cross reference other materials in the flash of a mouse click. Don't get me wrong, you have to be able to spell otherwise you won't be able to write (at least not yet) but what's the value of this in a new media world?

[DMT]

Right on!

[B-Fly]

Not to take anything away from Lilly (and congrats to her) but anybody else feel like this thing is fairly useless (and now annoying by the way it's gotten blown out of proportion)?

Hear me out - it's a similar argument that is currently raging about whether handwriting should be taught in schools: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html

With the development of electronic communications, the ability to spell flawlessly has become far less important. In many situations, as long as you're close, you can be corrected automatically. If you're not even sure if you have the word correct, you can cross reference other materials in the flash of a mouse click. Don't get me wrong, you have to be able to spell otherwise you won't be able to write (at least not yet) but what's the value of this in a new media world?

What I think is great about spelling and spelling competitions are the things that are required to be a great speller, rather than the spelling itself: primarily vocabulary acquisition with a strong side helping of etymology. I think those two things are still very important for reading and knowledge acquisition, as well as for writing and knowledge-sharing, all of which are critical skills.

[DMT]

Not to take anything away from Lilly (and congrats to her) but anybody else feel like this thing is fairly useless (and now annoying by the way it's gotten blown out of proportion)?

Hear me out - it's a similar argument that is currently raging about whether handwriting should be taught in schools: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html

With the development of electronic communications, the ability to spell flawlessly has become far less important. In many situations, as long as you're close, you can be corrected automatically. If you're not even sure if you have the word correct, you can cross reference other materials in the flash of a mouse click. Don't get me wrong, you have to be able to spell otherwise you won't be able to write (at least not yet) but what's the value of this in a new media world?

This is really quite a silly argument IMO. Just because tools exist to supplement one's learning does not reduce the importance of education.

[Trautdiggity]

This is really quite a silly argument IMO. Just because tools exist to supplement one's learning does not reduce the importance of education.

Not downplaying the importance of eduction at all. Rather in a world where we have assistance for spelling the outlandish, I'm arguing that I don't see the value in the ability to extemporaneously spell the outlandish. Fly - I agree that vocabulary acquisition is very important but there are limits. When you get to the point of being able to use words like batrachophagous in a sentence haven't you jumped the shark spelling's utility? Wouldn't the time be better invested in reading or entering writing competitions?

[B-Fly]

Not downplaying the importance of eduction at all. Rather in a world where we have assistance for spelling the outlandish, I'm arguing that I don't see the value in the ability to extemporaneously spell the outlandish. Fly - I agree that vocabulary acquisition is very important but there are limits. When you get to the point of being able to use words like batrachophagous in a sentence haven't you jumped the shark spelling's utility? Wouldn't the time be better invested in reading or entering writing competitions?

I guess it depends how much of your prep work is word-list memorization and how much of it is more robust study of etymology and linguistics. I think the former may well amount to a waste of brain cells by the time you get to "batrachophagous", but not the latter. It's like the difference between memorizing the stats on the back of baseball cards and actually engaging in sabermetric analysis.

[DMT]

Not downplaying the importance of eduction at all. Rather in a world where we have assistance for spelling the outlandish, I'm arguing that I don't see the value in the ability to extemporaneously spell the outlandish. Fly - I agree that vocabulary acquisition is very important but there are limits. When you get to the point of being able to use words like batrachophagous in a sentence haven't you jumped the shark spelling's utility? Wouldn't the time be better invested in reading or entering writing competitions?

Vocabulary skills are by far the most important in doing well on standardized verbal tests like the SAT and GRE. Sure, most of the really outlandish words aren't going to appear but I am sure these kids all ace their verbal SATs.

[NakedRicci]

I sucked at spelling bees, I didn't do especially well on my verbal SAT, yet managed to get two communications-related degrees and work as an editor for America's oldest publishing company... go figure.