OT: Spelling Bee....8 winners?

[Blakeon18]

Did you watch last night?

8 winners....tied...all get first prize.

They claimed that they had run out of words that would legitimately challenge the kids.

Believe that? Maybe a time constraint....it was running very late in the evening?

Bottom line...appropriate to end the competition with 8 winners?

 

[eebmg]

Just adding my comments in my thread to yours

Well, the spelling community has overwhelmed the Scripps Spelling Bee. 8 co-winners. Clearly, study methods have improved and the 'tricks' are being better understood. Glad they decided to give all winners the 50K.
)
Is this a growing trend? Will the winners grow geometrically?

Will they need to change some rules (Max age 9 )?

Does spelling really matter when we have spell check?

 

[Big Mick]

"Trophy for Everyone" territory...

 

[hoopsfan22]

"Trophy for Everyone" territory...

There was only one trophy.

 

[Big Mick]

There was only one trophy.

not too savvy there hoopsfan22

 

[eebmg]

There was only one trophy.

My understanding is they all got (or will get) the same trophy and they will get the same full prize money. Well deserved but unless the contest is modified to make it harder, it will lose its purpose.

 

[Bama fan]

A small industry has evolved around these contests. Training programs, study guides, "tricks" manuals, and even a way to buy into the contest if you did not qualify by winning a local bee. The adults have pushed the kids beyond the capacity and intention of the original concept. Travel ball for orthographs! We can manage to ruin everything if we just try hard enough!

 

[hoopsfan22]

Looking at the list of names and their states of the eight winners it seems Texas is well represented. Not only does Coach Mulkey have easy access to bigs, but she gets her pick of top spellers as well!

 

[VaConnFan11]

This is the 1st year I didn't watch at least some of it. Having co-winners in the past turned me off and now with 8 co-winners, I'm glad I didn't watch any of it.

Running out of words should never be the reason. No one had a dictionary handy?

 

[Dove]

Each contestant should be told the word at most 4 times. Given definition and origin once.

 

[Engineer90]

A small industry has evolved around these contests. Training programs, study guides, "tricks" manuals, and even a way to buy into the contest if you did not qualify by winning a local bee. The adults have pushed the kids beyond the capacity and intention of the original concept. Travel ball for orthographs! We can manage to ruin everything if we just try hard enough!

More true than you know. Parents are out of control. This is nothing more than evidence of a growing number of tiger parents that are willing to rob their kids of their childhood in order feed their insatiable egos.

 

[Bigboote]

This is the 1st year I didn't watch at least some of it. Having co-winners in the past turned me off and now with 8 co-winners, I'm glad I didn't watch any of it.

Running out of words should never be the reason. No one had a dictionary handy?

I was watching during prime time. It was supposed to last till 10:30; I told my wife, with 14 contestants left at a little before 10, there's no way they finish that night. I went to bed and find out they played till past midnight and called a multi-person draw.

Something's gotta give. The words are ridiculous, they started the day with IIRC over 500 contestants. If they want to do it in one day they should possibly have a pre-bee the day before and cut it down to maybe 100. Or make the time limit 1 minute instead of 2.

I couldn't believe it when they were pointing out kids' "coaches." Really, a spelling coach?

 

[nickp91]

We need a 30 for 30 made about this year’s Spelling Bee

 

[Engineer90]

We need a 30 for 30 made about this year’s Spelling Bee

We really do. Listen, no bull, I know two bee winners from the past handful of years. My kids went to school with them. These kids sacrifice their childhood to try and win this. Everyone applauds the winner but does anyone think about the kids that sacrificed their childhood and ended up with nothing but bitter and angry parents that, trust me, let the kids know? This has turned into nothing more than an intellectual [penis] swinging contest by egomaniacal tiger parents. And once one kid uses this to get into Princeton (again, I know the kid) the other crazy parents see it and push their kid to be the next famous bee winner. The abusive parenting grows like a cancer.

And it isn't just the bee. It extends to extracurricular and volunteer activities as well as sports. One Chinese kid in our area just used swimming to get into Cal Tech. A buddy I work with is Russian and married a Chinese woman. They have a 10 year old daughter who likes to swim but, really, there is no reason to think she is super gifted. The mom takes her 6 hours each way several times a month so she can train with an Olympic swim coach. When she is not honing her hook for Harvard she is practicing the violin and piano. The mom is a walking tiger mom stereotype. My buddy is concerned but is cautious as this is his second marriage. I live in a rural area and we are surrounded by madness. I can only imagine what it is like in Westchester county or Palo Alto.

And the colleges encourage this bad behavior. They have switched from valuing well rounded kids to what they now call "pointed" applicants. They want kids that they say are passionate about something. What that really means is that they want an obsessed kid who was driven to excell on a national level at something so they can brag about that kid in their incoming class profile. Swimming, spelling bee, science olympiad, archery, ballroom dancing...whatever.