Another winner of Indian descent... does the Spelling Bee have a diversity problem? 14 of the past 16 champions have been Indian-American, with this year's final coming down to two different Indian-American children. Some point to a 2002 documentary "Spellbound" as the moment where Indian-Americans realized they could be successful at the Spelling Bee and started trying very hard to win. Many point to the fact that other American kids will play sports for hours at a time while a young Indian may be studying Greek root combinations. They have created the South Asian Spelling Bee which only accepts children of that descent, and is somewhat similar to a NIT tournament compared to the NCAA of Scripps.

Does the Spelling Bee need to do an outreach program, much like MLB does with its RBI program and attempt to reach out to other national backgrounds?

_________________
"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

its a largely meaningless competition. learning how to spell weird words wont get kids very far in life. sure, its not a bad activity for them, but to me sports matter more. it teaches cooperation and overall mental and physical health, which are essential to success in life.

_________________
the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Are you saying that building vocabulary and learning how to break down words into their roots has no effect on the way we read?

Somewhere Alanis starts to sing ♬ isn't it ironic ♬.

_________________
Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

No, but it does make our posts compehensible.

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

#BeeSoBrown

#BeeToo

learning to spell in children has nothing to do with how useful those words will be in their life, spelling is a mental exercise that exercises the brain which very much helps you learn other things more proficiently.

indian americans value education on a whole other level than the average american.

I was the Spelling Bee champion of my school. I went to the regionals and I got bounced on an easy word- "emulsify".

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

B-e-e.

_________________

the real question here is whether jason jones would object to busing in indian kids to his kids' school... lord knows that spelling bee money/fame/shine could be spent on a lot of useful stuff for the jones-bee kids.

DON'T LET ME DOWN HERE SNOPES!

_________________

I think we've had this discussion like 5 times, but so was I. I got bounced on a word I knew, too. I think Dr. Ken and others were spelling bee champs as well.

_________________

Frank Neuhauser was dumb, tiny, and white. He could never compete in today's Spelling Bee. Can you imagine him going up against these modern Indians? Look at their brains! No chance Neuhauser could spell "Feldenkrais".

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

You are kidding, correct?

If not, I'm busting your chops that a future Trump supporter wouldn't know emulsify

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

_________________
Freedom is our Strength.

knocked out of 2nd round with canoeist. went with "canoesist". was so pissed. i worked hard and was one of the better spellers in our class. odds on favorite to do the best out of the class. dad had that "i took of work for this bullshit" face.

_________________
"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

Yeah, I was a champion speller in my youth as well. I used to love to read the dictionary in elementary school. Anyway, I choked in the state finals on an easy word I had ridiculed another kid for missing in an earlier competition. I had hurt the kid's feelings, felt guilty about it, and unconsciously forced myself to make the same mistake he did. Poetic justice, I guess.

_________________

I accidentially got in to a spelling bee. It was terrible. I had to study words for about a whole week before so I didn't look like an ass up there.

Definitions are a stall tactic.

We had one spelling bee in grade school. 4th grade. I won. There was nothing after that.

So I am still the reigning champ.

I was spelling champ in grade school,but then again I was up against the Irish and hillbillies

_________________
When I am stuck and need to figure something out I always remember the Immortal words of Socrates when he said:"I just drank what?"