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Should the Department of Education Be Abolished?
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Can you spell Laodicean? Well, maybe you can now after seeing it here. But until it was one of the words on this past week's Spelling Bee, I had never even heard of it before. The word means "lukewarm or indifferent, particularly in matters of politics or religion."
It's also the word that won 13-year-old Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas, $40,000 in cash and prizes in the 82nd Annual Scripps National Spelling Bee last week. Shivashankar lasted 15 rounds and beat out 292 other spellers (a record for the annual competition).
She also spelled words such as "phoresy," "hydrargyrum" and "huisache." Hmm .. so much for spell check—it's telling me I spelled all of those wrong!
"This has been my dream for so long; I've always wanted to win the bee," Shivashankar told CNN. "I was just really excited when I was able to go up and spell the last word."
Some people think these spelling bee competitions might be too much for kids—like any other intense competition that sort of takes over their lives. But what if bees replaced something, like say, American Idol, and the winner won a college scholarship and all of America became better spellers? Would you watch it? Would you sign your kid up for it? Would you enter a spelling bee for adults? What if the prize was a scholarship for you kid?
Did you watch the Spelling Bee? What did you think of it? Should it replace American Idol? Or do feel pretty laodicean about the whole thing?
Comments (18)
YES. But that would be a step towards a smarter America so it would probably never happen.
I was so mad! I meant to record it, because I had to go out but then I forgot. We had a boy from one of our junior high schools in it.
Yes, I would watch it. I was in the bee, and all three of my kids were, too. My sons won their school's bees. My older one won every year, from fifth grade on up. The last year he was eligible, (eighth grade) he was two levels away from going to Washington. That sounds close, but it's only one higher than the school. He tied for third place, I think.
Something not everyone may know about the bee is that until you get to the round that qualifies for Washington, you use a book of words to study from. It's hard, but once you get to the level sponsored by your local newspaper (which qualifies you for nationals) your study book is the whole dictionary. That's why the national bee is so hard.
Yes, I would participate in an adult bee. Scripps Howard has them but I don't know how to find them. Also, one of the activities at Bee Week in Wahington is a bee for the parents of the contestants. I'll bet they're good spellers, too, by that time.
OMG I watched that spelling bee, and I found myself enthralled! I was cheering the last 3 contestants on like they were running a race! It was incredible, and I really felt bad for the 2 who lost. I was more interested in that 10 minutes of the spelling bee than I was in all the seasons of American Idol.
Sure. At least it's something that will excel the person for the better. Of course I love music but imo AI is simply a competition. Spelling, however, does something for the person that will help them educationally in their life.
I so enjoyed the Spelling Bee. I let my kids stay up late so we could all watch it together. My youngest son said he would like to do that & I would totally support him. I would love to see more stuff like this instead of the crap that keep being put on television.
No, it shouldn't replace AI, but it would be nice for it to be a series.
Spelling bees are not any more tough or strenuous on kids than a sport, a science fair, a chess tournament etc If they love doing it, they feel they're accomplishing something, and they're making friends; I don't see any problems!
Kayva has her college education PAID FOR, and then some!
I THINK IT SHOULD REPLACE AI, CAUSE THE MUSIC ISN'T GOOD 4 CHILDREN 2 LISTEN 2 IT. I DID WATCH THE SHOW LAST WEEK & THOUGHT THE GIRL DID WELL DONE ON THOSE WORDS THAT AS GIVEN 2 HER 2 SPELL.
I love the spelling bee (and I missed it this year :( ) and often will try and spell along. (I won a school spelling bee in fourth grade sooo.... I'm pretty good. lol) I can't wait till my daughter is old enough to be into that sort of stuff.... it'll be must see TV in our house.
Spelling bee serious would be pretty cool & I may watch it if I found the show itself entertaining... I think ANY show promoting education, good morals & common since would be GREAT!
What happened to "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" that show was good!
I wish that people cared as much about things like this as they did about American Idol.
Maybe promoting language as a "cool" thing would prevent some hideous misuses of the English language... like substituting a number for a two-letter word like "to".