8th grader wins 2005 National Spelling Bee

[bossradio93]

Eighth-Grade Boy Wins U.S. Spelling Bee

Story, here.

Yahoo! News/AP-June 2, 2005

[vienna waits]

poor kid sounds like a wreck. bursting into tears... hiding behind his cardboard number...

[Hollow]

ahh.. i didn't see it this year. i almost made it to the national finals in fifth and eighth grade.

78th Annual National Scripps Spelling Bee

that's Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. b33tch335.

[TripperFan]

Those kids are truly amazing!! Not only spell words I've never even heard of, but the stress they're now put under during it all.

I saw one kid actually faint while he was spelling, he went flat out - but nobody could come over to help him up (since they could possibly cheat and disqualify him). He got up on his own, and went back to the mic and bless his heart, finished spelling the word and got it correct!

Thumbs up to all participants!! Good spelling is a big key to success and its becoming a lost art.

[Mijada]

That's a lot of pressure on those kids. The boy that won last year was standing up at the mic sweating and breathing heavily. I thought he was going to pee his pants or have a heart attack.

[TripperFan]

Originally Posted by Mijada

That's a lot of pressure on those kids. The boy that won last year was standing up at the mic sweating and breathing heavily. I thought he was going to pee his pants or have a heart attack.

Or puke! I've seen that before too.

[Courtnee]

Originally Posted by TripperFan

Or puke! I've seen that before too.

been there, done it.

[SBTB Geek]

Did you hear about the kid that mispelled "girlfriend"?

[TripperFan]

Originally Posted by ~*American Idiot*~

been there, done it.

OH man!! Bummer!

[TripperFan]

Originally Posted by SBTB Geek

Did you hear about the kid that mispelled "girlfriend"?

No - doesn't sound like a word they would even bother using at a National level.

[SBTB Geek]

Originally Posted by TripperFan

No - doesn't sound like a word they would even bother using at a National level.

That's what I was thinking. But some kid got it, and mispelled it.

[TripperFan]

Originally Posted by SBTB Geek

That's what I was thinking. But some kid got it, and mispelled it.

had to be nerves and they pulled a blank - or the obvious - reversed the "ie".

[Hollow]

Spelling Bee Finalist Eliminated on the Word “Girlfriend”
Christopher Heck, a finalist at last week’s Scripps National Spelling Bee, was eliminated when he was unable to spell the word “girlfriend.” Bee champion David Tidmarsh then clinched the title by successfully spelling “autochthonous,” a word meaning “indigenous.”

Heck, 13, gamely tried to spell “girlfriend” for several minutes, asking its origin (English), definition (“a favored female companion or sweetheart”) and for it to be used in a sentence. Bee Master Michael Winchester provided Heck with the sentence: “You will never have a girlfriend,” prompting the boy to break into tears and run off the stage.

Heck’s mother, Bonnie, who homeschools her three children in the dining room of their Peoria, Illinois home, said this is not the first time her son has been tripped up by a seemingly simple word. “Last year in the Illinois state competition he was knocked out when he failed to spell ‘popularity’ correctly,” she said. “It was a word he had no concept of or experience with.”



Spelling Bee officials say it is an unwritten rule that Bee Masters do not ask spellers words that may have negative emotional connotations for the children. “It is our goal to not upset the children or remind them of their status as social outcasts,” said Beth Riley, director of the Spelling Bee. “That’s why you’ll never see words like ‘dork,’ ‘gayboy,’ ‘nerd,’ ‘wedgie,’ or ‘loser’ in a spelling bee. These kids hear those words enough on a day-to-day basis and don’t need to deal with hearing them in the one place their special talents are celebrated.”

Riley also stated that while such words may be simple for most people to spell, they can provide an enormous challenge to even the best child spellers. “You have to realize what these kids go through each day in school,” she said. “If you ask them to spell an easy word like ‘queerbate’ or ‘retard,’ a lot of them will freeze up because of all the emotional baggage they have tied to a word like that. They’re completely unable to spell it, and many of them will wet their pants upon hearing such words. I’ve seen it happen.”

But Heck said he was unable to spell “girlfriend” simply because the word is foreign to him and because girls think he is weird, not because he is taunted about it. “My mother homeschools me because she says I’m special and that the normal kids at public school would be a detriment to my educational well-being, so I don’t get ridiculed too much – except when my family takes its monthly trip to the shopping mall,” he said. “Then I get my share of abuse if I stray away from mother or father.”

Heck claims the Spelling Bee was only the second time he ever heard the word “girlfriend.” “I once heard it on television when I was staying at my cousin’s house while my mother was giving birth to my little sister, so I know what it means,” he said. “But that was the only time. We don’t have a television at my house because my parents say TV is for proletariat ignoramuses.”

Riley said the Bee Master Winchester has been reprimanded about his choice of context sentence for Heck’s word.” “Not only did he use a word that is a bit risky with most of these kids,” said Riley, “but the sentence he used to describe it was highly inappropriate. I can assure you it won’t happen again.”

“I apologized to Heck about making him cry,” said Winchester. “I didn’t mean to do it, I just couldn’t find the paper with the context sentence, so I simply said what came to my mind first. I looked up at that kid and all I could think was: ‘You will never have a girlfriend.’ I’m sorry he took it so personally.”

wow. that kid must be really sheltered. and i really am surprised they used such an easy word for the national finals. i would have been relieved if i were given it.

[EmoJoe]

Heck claims the Spelling Bee was only the second time he ever heard the word “girlfriend.” “I once heard it on television when I was staying at my cousin’s house while my mother was giving birth to my little sister, so I know what it means,” he said. “But that was the only time. We don’t have a television at my house because my parents say TV is for proletariat ignoramuses.”

Riley said the Bee Master Winchester has been reprimanded about his choice of context sentence for Heck’s word.” “Not only did he use a word that is a bit risky with most of these kids,” said Riley, “but the sentence he used to describe it was highly inappropriate. I can assure you it won’t happen again.”

Um ok, he doesnt know what girlfriend means? And why did they use girlfriend as a word at the national spelling finals?

[Hollow]

Originally Posted by Mijada

That's a lot of pressure on those kids. The boy that won last year was standing up at the mic sweating and breathing heavily. I thought he was going to pee his pants or have a heart attack.

that's how i always felt before competing. god, it is so nerve-wracking. you're just praying the whole time that you'll know how to spell your next word and that the other contestants will mess up. the sound of that BELL.. oh my god.. words can't describe how awful it feels to hear it after spelling a word. spelling bees were a big part of my life but i'm kind of relieved those days are over because the words i had to study for the state finals always worried me so much. there were so damn many of them and most of them i'd never heard of, but i had to assure myself that most of the other kids probably hadn't either. in the state spelling bee in eighth grade i guessed on every word i was given except one and i ended up in 9th place, out of about 25 kids.