Spelling bees prove impractical for students

Every year, during Memorial Day weekend, thousands of people tune in to ESPN to watch the Scripps National Spelling Bee, which brings together the best young spellers in the country. These are students in eighth grade or below and are familiar with words such as “autochthonous” and “stromuhr.”

Outwardly, spelling words like these seems to be an impressive feat. Many spectators are astonished by the talent possessed by the competitors and marvel at the impossibly long and complicated words they are able to spell.

However, the reality is that spending hours and hours memorizing mile-long lists of words probably is not the best use of a student’s time. These hours would be better consumed with studying for classes or reading books than learning words one may never use again.

In addition, some of the competition’s more challenging words may sound foreign even to most well-read viewers. A 14-year-old-girl named Snigdha Nandipati won last year’s tournament after she correctly spelled the word “guetapens,” from the French for “ambush.” Other examples of words used in the bee include “parochialism,” “flexuosity” and “adipose.”

While a passion for words is admirable and spelling bees may be quite entertaining for spectators, one’s mind simply does not need collections of little-known words cluttering up space in which much more useful information can be stored.

On the other extreme, in recent years, administrators across the country seem to have deemed spelling unnecessary to the school curriculum. According to the Washington Post, in 2010, two school districts in St. Louis decided to ban spelling tests in favor of “pattern-based learning,” in which students simply learn the rules of standard spelling and are not required to memorize spellings of specific words.

The ban was apparently caused by diminishing self-esteem among students due to possible failure on these tests and judgments that these assessments do not have a hand in progressing spelling skills. But the negative impact on self-image may be amplified if students later face ridicule for misspelling some basic English words.

Those who oppose spelling in school may argue that in this modern world of spell check and other such tools, learning spelling simply is not as beneficial as it was 50 years ago.

However, misspelling common words does continue to be a problem among students, especially the improper use of homophones, which encompass some of the most frequently misspelled words in the English language. Computers may be smart, but they cannot differentiate “their,” “there” or “they’re” and spell check will not notify one if “affect” is used in place of “effect.”

Nonetheless, this is not to say that these are reasons to toil away in preparation for a spelling bee. At such a young age, one must keep a balanced schedule and experience different forms of academic activities, which may not be possible if that schedule is consumed by brooding over words and their roots.

Though the importance of basic spelling is indisputable, it is no justification for spending unnecessarily long hours learning the spelling and definitions of countless, vastly unused words. One will succeed in life with far more ease knowing the theory of calculus and physics than by knowing the orthography of the word “cymotrichous.”