What's the Buzz?

293 kids are in Washington for the Scripps National Spelling Bee this week. That sounds like a great time for them. And maybe a rough time as well. Let’s face it; they are going to spend the week trying to prove they are smarter than the other 292 kids. They are going to have to spell words like “"phonasthenia" (weakness or hoarseness of voice due to enunciation that is too high, too loud, or too hard or from fatigue). I mean how much fun can that be?

There of course will be all of the parents and teachers there rooting them on, pressuring them to be perfect. The winner will take home some $40,000 in cash, scholarships, and prizes. That’s a lot of pressure for a kid who is between the ages of 9 – 15. I am sure that none of the parents will bring to bear any additional pressure. I am sure no parent said, “If you don’t win, I don’t know how I’m going to send you to college.”

But then, perhaps I view these spelling bees with distrust due to my own lack of spelling ability. Perhaps it comes from my own lack of success in the spelling bees in school that I participated in. Usually, I was one of the first to go. I’d get a word like “receive” and wonder if the “i” went before the “e” after “c” or if that was except after “c”.

My one time getting to the end of the spelling bee was the first time I was in a spelling bee in grammar school. I had somehow made it to the final two spellers. It was me and the smartest girl in the class – who was also the prettiest girl in the class as far as I was concerned.

We each got fairly easy words the first time through the final round. I kept looking at the girl (Claudia was her name) and thinking she was just about the cutest girl I’d ever seen. At that moment, I knew in the depths of my being that I could win this spelling bee. I also knew I just could not stand to see her lose. I was new in the school and had not been classified as yet (you know nerd, jock, trouble maker etc.) and this was my chance to be a “smart” kid!

I got my word – automobile, I looked at her, I thought about the word. I could only think about her blonde locks and blue eyes. I rushed into it, a-t-o-m-o-b-i-l-e!

She had won. She turned to me and stuck her tongue out at me and gloated. So I lost the spelling bee and the girl at the ripe old age of 8.

So forgive me if I have nothing for distain for spelling bees. If I laugh at kids, parents and teachers caught up in the merriment of the event. It’s not that I know any better, it simply a bad case of sour grapes.