The Futility of the Spelling Bee
this entry brought to you by the white stripes, "blue orchid" (again)
One of my guilty pleasures is watching state spelling bees on PBS. I fancy myself quite a good speller, and in fact, quite a stickler for correct spelling. I love marvelling at the kid who has no idea what "onomatopoeia" means, yet, simply by asking for the word to be repeated and the definition, can spit that sucker out, letter by letter.
I was in a spelling bee once in the fifth grade. Was the fourth-to-last to go. You want to know what word tripped me? "Drudgery", of all words. There was something about the way he pronounced it that didn't click in my head. I route for these kids because I have been there. The shittiest, stupidest words can throw you for a loop. Of course I knew how to spell drudgery! What was I, a frickin' kindergartner?
Then I realize that awesome spelling isn't really an applicable skill. Really, the only people that could use it are copy editors, and with spell checks only getting more and more elaborate, even copy editors don't need spelling skills. So it not only doesn't get chicks, it's also completely useless. And that makes me sad.
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with love from CRS @ 8:33 PM
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
One of my guilty pleasures is watching state spelling bees on PBS. I fancy myself quite a good speller, and in fact, quite a stickler for correct spelling. I love marvelling at the kid who has no idea what "onomatopoeia" means, yet, simply by asking for the word to be repeated and the definition, can spit that sucker out, letter by letter.
I was in a spelling bee once in the fifth grade. Was the fourth-to-last to go. You want to know what word tripped me? "Drudgery", of all words. There was something about the way he pronounced it that didn't click in my head. I route for these kids because I have been there. The shittiest, stupidest words can throw you for a loop. Of course I knew how to spell drudgery! What was I, a frickin' kindergartner?
Then I realize that awesome spelling isn't really an applicable skill. Really, the only people that could use it are copy editors, and with spell checks only getting more and more elaborate, even copy editors don't need spelling skills. So it not only doesn't get chicks, it's also completely useless. And that makes me sad.
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