A Better Way to Bee

My son has been successful at spelling bees. Twice, he has won his school’s bee and gone on to regional competition. Nonetheless, I am not a fan. I have no problem with rewarding kids for good spelling. The competition doesn’t bother me either. My main problem is the extremely public failure. In addition, some of the words are more difficult than others; success is often more about the luck of the word rather than the skill of the speller. Couldn’t we have a more fair and kind way to run spelling bees?

A student at my son’s most recent school bee was given a word she did not know. She waited and thought. She contorted her face, blushed and looked down. She looked like she was going to cry. Finally, she said, in a broken voice, “I don’t know this word.” The judge encouraged her to sound out the word and try it. She did and spelled the word correctly. However, she was not so fortunate the second time this happened. And the second time felt even more painful.

Perhaps standing in front of an audience and failing builds character. Maybe it makes our kids tough. I am not sure I want tough kids. Kids in a spelling bee can feel very exposed. They are taking a big risk and, when they fail, everyone watches. I can understand why some kids have no desire to participate.

Kids in sports fail publicly. Performing arts students might make mistakes. The difference is that kids in these activities are not alone. A strike out includes a batter and a pitcher. Other performers mitigate errors on stage. Not so in a bee.

The deciding word for the most recent bee I attended was cincture. The word that the next student received was qwerty. At this point in the bee, the regular list of words had been exhausted, so no speller had been given these words in a study guide. However, qwerty is a far easier word than cincture. Words that break rules (like counterfeit because it breaks the i before e rule), follow another language’s form (airborne has an e at the end unlike most American spellings), or are obscure (like cincture) will be more difficult than even the longest commonly used words.

There is a way to address both of these issues. Spelling bees could be less a display of children’s failures and become more focused on the skills involved. Instead of spelling words orally, what if each child had a pad of paper and a writing utensil – or some form of computer. The bee could be entirely administered on a computer in the same manner as geography bees or students could sit in study carrels, so they could not see other students’ pads of paper while writing their answers.

The judge could read a word aloud and automatically provide the definition, language of origin, and other information. All spellers would then have a crack at the word at the same time. At a signal from the judge, they would show what they had written. Some would get it right. Some would get it wrong. While it is possible that only one child might err, the focus would not be on that child exclusively. All of the spellers showed their work at the same moment. No one was on the hot seat by him or herself.

While this might be less dramatic, it would be more humane and accurate. It would be a far better way to bee!