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The Spelling Bee contest in the US has just concluded. As in each year, there was a huge media attention on this yearly contest. 

 

However, can we step back and do a rain check? What is this all about? Is it one more American Idol type of contest that is more idolatry in content than intellectual? We know that Spelling Bee predates American Idol by many, many years and any comparison will be misplaced. But here is how I look at it: if it is idolatry in content, I am fine with it but if it masquerades as an intellectual pursuit or a grand scheme to improve the spellings worldwide then I have an issue with it.

 

I suspect that the latter is what that is being overtly and tacitly touted. See below the official purpose of the contest:

 

 

 We even know that Frank Neuhauser won the first recorded Spelling Bee contest in 1925. So, what happened to him after that? Did he go on to boil the oceans? Did he win a Booker Prize? Or a Pulitzer Prize? I suspect not. We know that Kavya won the 2009 Spelling Bee contest by correctly spelling the word ‘laodicean’. Will she ever use the word ‘laodicean’ again in her lifetime? Maybe she would. But chances are that she wouldn’t. Would you use it? You might, if you were to take part in 2010 Spelling Bee Contest. Else, I dare say you will not.

 

There is a movement going on worldwide to make the spellings in the English language easier. And not without reason too.  We know that the exceptions in the spelling rules far outstrip the rules. Is it a wonder that an average American child takes 12 years to become proficient in English spellings while an Italian child takes just 2 to become proficient in Italian spellings? So the movement to free English from the tyranny of mismatch of the phonemes and the graphemes is understandable and indeed very urgent. For example, a survey commissioned by Spellings Society to ascertain the current state of spellings in the US, published the following result for common words. (The words are listed in the image below as line items on the left):

 

 

Spelling Bee Contest, I believe, is an antithesis of the movement that wants to make spellings easier. The simple rule in this contest is that more difficult a spelling a child is able to guess or reproduce from memory, more her ranking in the contest will be. In other words, if one has mastered the exceptions in the spelling rules, one is a champion. While it is open to debate that such ability is a valid test for intellect, such testing strikes at the root of the movement which wants to bring in a method in the madness of English spellings.

 

Take for example, Dr Valerie Yule’s impassioned plea for spelling improvement through Interspel  . One of her to-do list in the English language lexicon for spelling improvement is given below:

(a) Omit superfluous letters in words

(b) Use consistent spellings for constants

(c) Reduce the 240+ spellings for English vowels sounds to 48

(d) Facilitate faster reading for meaning with sound-symbol relationships modified by grammatical, morphemic and problem-solving principles that children can understand

(e) Open the way to future fuller reforms

 

Sometime in the future, when the spelling state is utterly in tatters, the English speaking world will wake up and heed her advice and perhaps adopt the listed action items. Where will this leave the Spelling Bee Contest? It will be a no contest and none will be the worse for it.

 

Therefore, I say, have your Spelling Bee Contest if you will. Let it be for fun sake. For serious and practical business – like preparing for GMAT and SAT exam, for example –  go ahead and do your vocabletics(for want of a better word). But let’s not couch Spelling Bee Contest as some esoteric intellectual activity.