Be the Bee

<

There is a competition so grueling, where kids have to pour their sweat and blood; while stretching their brains until its silly putty just to win, this my friends is called: THE SPELLING BEE!!! OK, so we all have been through this trial in life,your Grammar school teacher made your whole class study a list of spelling words and have a mock spelling bee in class, whoever wins gets to represent the class in the school competition. I myself, was chosen in 7th grade and was called a nerd by my classmates. I'm naturally competitive, I took the challenge and failed miserably with my first word, because it was too much pressure for me. You basically have to stand up on stage while about 300 hundred kids plus adults might wish you to succeed or want you to fall on your face.

If you actually win the school competition you move on to the state championship. Then if after weeks of chowing down words for breakfast, you win state, the true battle begins: Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Scripps Spelling Bee has been televised since 1946, created by the E.W. Scripps, a non-profit company, that only wishes to "Help the students improve their studies, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop English usage that will help them in all their lives." The winner of the whole spelling bee gets money $30,000 and a huge trophy with your name on it. Of course for this to occur you have to survive each round.


Spelling bees used to be dreaded by students and only considered cool among the "egg heads" and "book worms." But the Bee's popularity has been soaring since the beginning of the 21st century. Movies like "Akeelah and the Bee," (2006)shows the life of a young black girl named Akeelah who enters the spelling bee to get out of dentition and smooth over her many class absences, but struggles with have an unsupportive mother,and troubled brother. She wins the school spelling bee and finds inspiration from her new mentor English Professor, Joshua Larabee. Also another movie is "Bee Season"(2005), about a young Jewish girl named Eliza who becomes close to her father when she wins the school Spelling competition. Her Father teachers her aspects of the Kabblah Religion to help her reach the National Spelling Bee.


Both films show the negative and positive aspects of the spelling bee world: The bright side is that kids build up their self-esteems and expand their vocabulary and create friendships with other competitors. The dark side is the parents who push their children way to much, because they want them to win so badly. Kids cry on stage or have nervous break downs, since some have been studying and waiting for their time in the sun for five years. When the final round comes, the remaining two are frazzled, but determined to win the last showdown. Here is a video of Final Round 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Final Round and Close of 2009 Spelling Bee.But for some reason I can't post the picture so if you want to see it you have look at my video bar: First Bar, second video.

I think the Spelling Bee is a creative way to motivate kids into reading and looking up words along with their meanings. The Media is allowing people to see into the Bee Culture, and understand that though its a competition you can still have fun.



Check out the Scripps National Spelling Bee website:
(http://www.spellingbee.com)