The National Spelling Bee--What Worked

When Juan Antonio Samaranch, former President of the International Olympic Committee (1980-2001), commended the host city of a Summer or Winter Olympics, he would frequently say that the games were the "best ever." I would say, without a doubt, that the 2008 National Spelling Bee, just concluded in Cheyenne WY, was the "best ever." Though I place fifth in the event and missed a word I should easily have known, I think that the competition was so good and the words so evenly and appropriately selected that the best speller this time around, Larry Grossman, emerged victorious. Yet it was a nail-biter until the end since all of the last competitors had missed two words before victory was proclaimed. What made this competition so superior this year was that every aspect of the bee, from accommodations to staff work to media attention to spellers/spelling reflected a level of excellence and maturity that shows me that the National Spelling Bee, if carefully guided in the future, can set the standard for adult spelling bees. This doesn't mean that no improvements can be made. I will conclude this essay by mentioning a few things the committee ought to consider for next year.

Making it Work

First, however, the good things. We held the event at Little America Hotel & Resort in Cheyenne. I first became acquainted with the "Little America" concept in August 1967 when our family moved from CT to CA. The 5 cent ice-cream cones, 100 gas pumps and the hundres of miles of billboards advertising Little America across WY left an indelible impression on me. The Little America Hotel in Cheyenne undertook extensive remodeling in the past year; the conference rooms, dining facilities and, most mentioned, the bathrooms, were all top quality. So modern and huge was the woman's rest room/lounge that I overheard one female competitor say that she just might decide to spend the night there. The AARP staff is to be commended for choosing this venue; it was a treat to be there.

Then, the staff and board (of AARP) effort needed to pull this off was impressive. Rita Inoway, the director, made her gracious and gentle presence known in every way. Joanne Bowlby was tireless and skillful in arranging media interviews and making sure that we spellers got as much press as possible. Each year the local, regional and national press grows in its interest of the event, and we spellers are appreciative of this. And the board of the AARP, led by Pat Johnson, did yeoman work this year in lining up sponsors and doing the hundreds of things necessary to pull off such an event. We spellers especially appreciated the ten-fold growth in the prize money. Challenges already exist for 2009, especially in trying to find a permanent (or semi-permanent) lead sponsor who wants to encourage this kind of not-contact adult sport. I talked with Pat over refreshments after the Bee (and, it should be noted, the two high-class receptions for participants and others, as well as the excellent lunch, were much appreciated), and she mentioned that one of the goals is to get statewide bees functioning throughout the country which would be a sort of "feeder system" for the main bee. I think someone should try to come up with the money for a 1/2 time staff person who could arrange, at first, five or so "pilot" state spelling bees, with the understanding that the two top finishers would try to come to Cheyenne to compete. Funding is the issue, but there are those who believe that what really drives funding is ideas. Good ideas persuasively presented often call forth money...

The Bee Itself

There is no question in my mind that the key to the success of the spelling part of the Bee is attributable to two men: David Lerner and Brian Greene. David has been the pronouncer now for several years, taking on the difficult task of pronouncing for both written and oral sections. Each year his skills at the job become more, er, pronounced; this year there were only a few controverted pronunciations but, as I told the speller who later complained to me, the burden is on the speller to make sure that the pronouncer has gone over the word correctly. David lends a good balance of seriousness and humor, and his particpation in the 2003 Bee has provided him the knowledge of what it is like for spellers to be in front of the mike.

Brian Greene has made his important presence known in the last few years. He is a judge and the "word wizard," the man behind the thankless task not only of picking the right words for the written bee but of calibrating the difficulty of oral words so that a word like wampumpeag isn't followed by staircase, or something like that. Briane acquitted himself well this year, as the word-selection was generally pereceived as fair. One speller (Rodney) seemed to get more than his share of difficult words in the orals, but no one complained of inappropriate levels of words in the finals. That is a real tribute to Brian's labor.

A Few Suggestions

There are a few things that still need to be worked out in the future. The first has to do with the "embarrassment of riches" we now have in the many, many excellent spellers that show up in Cheyenne. Though future bees will be able to be constructed from our dictionary, the Merriam Webster Collegiate (11th ed.), the beemakers will become hard-pressed in the future to do so without use of obscure Scottish terms, drug names, chemical words and Linnaean classification-system words. Thus, if we continue to use the 11th edition, we may increasingly become a sort of "science bee," where medical/scientific people have the upper hand. On a note that not many took seriously when I mentioned it, I wonder if this might not secretly work against women. After all, we spellers are from a generation where women weren't encouraged to go into math and science; many 50s-60s women speak quite honestly about being "math-challenged." That the last six spellers this year were men might be an indication that this problem might grow...It is a big decision, however, to switch dictionaries, and I would think that we would continue with the 11th edition for at least two more years..

Then, we need to get a few more rules clear. I slipped up because I didn't study a word (ipecacuanha) because it was listed under ipecac with the word "also" following ipecac. Usually the beekeepers don't use words that have an italicized also between them, because it reflects different spellings/names for the same thing. Then, we will need a rule whether spellers are allowed to take pad and pencil up with them to the final rounds. One speller did that this year; I don't think other spellers were offended by it, but there needs to be clarity on that. Third, there needs to be actual training for judges for next year. Because the competition is getting intense, every word missed can spell, so to speak, near disaster. Thus, judges need to hold off from ringing the bell until each speller has completed a word. There needs to be a rule saying on whom the burden rests when a speller might not have understood the pronunciation of a word. I think it must remain on the speller, after David and Brian have tried to make the pronunciation crystal clear.

Conclusion

These last comments aren't meant to take away from the overall positive tone of the event. It was a pleasure to compete again this year; the National Senior Bee is without question the premier bee for adults in the country. All the more reason to make it better...

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