Andy Goss said: Furthermore, while I agree that a lot of the Spelling Bee is getting by on rote memorization, the same doesn't apply at least at the National level. Rote memorizing will get you by for all of two rounds. Many of the words in the later rounds are words I couldn't spell off the top of my head, yet they can. That is an achievement they should be proud of. Furthermore, how is the spelling bee not unlike High School academic competition in its drive to push children for the gain of the parent or school rather than the student's (see Meek, Dorothy, a notorious practitioner of such)? Thank you, Mr. Goss, for saying many of the things on my mind upon reading these posts. I was a two-time competitor in the NSB (73rd in 1991, 18th in 1992), and my preparation did consist of being sure to know those words from which I knew the first couple rounds would draw, the rest was, to an extent, blind luck. Yes, it may be memorization, but how is spelling on the whole NOT memorization? Many times the words that are selected are chosen simply because they DON'T conform to standard "rules" of spelling. As for the comparison, to high school quiz bowl, while there is less of a similarity, I see the main point. Of course, this suggests that HSQB, like the collegiate game, has an "acceptable" canon of questions and answers. I'd like to think that's not the case (I KNOW that can't be possible with the collegiate game, and I'll save my commentary on that for another time)--if it were, we should have had numerous perfect scores and more one-man teams out there than there are. Yes, the NSB is based on memorization. Deal with it. QB is not superior to all other intellectual or intellectual-like competitions, nor should it be the standard by which others are judged. Bring on the flames--I'll be in Atlanta this weekend. David Bykowski, who still wears his 1992 NSB Finals watch with pride P.S. Also, I was NOT home-schooled. I went to an ordinary public school. Remember, homeschooling is only a recent trend--the NSB has been around for 73 years.
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