# The National Spelling Bee **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 22, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876 "2003-05-22T19:57:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/1 "2003-05-22T19:57:51Z")
The Scripps Howard [National Spelling Bee](http://www.spellingbee.com/) is coming! This annual contest features adolescents from all over the country spelling words most of us have never heard of. It will air live on ESPN Wednesday and Thursday. I won a school spelling bee in the 8th grade, but we never had words like these kids have to spell. Unfortunately I will miss it this year, but I always enjoy watching it. The first year I saw it I ended up in front of the TV, riveted, for more than two hours, watching to the end. These are some great kids, doing their very best. I like to look at the index of [Spellers](http://www.spellingbee.com/03bee/spellerindex.shtml) and try to find a kid sponsored by a local newspaper. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2003, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/2 "2003-05-22T20:26:36Z")
Have you seen the film _Spellbound?_ It’s a documentary about the 1999 National Spelling Bee that’s supposedly pretty good, Oscar nominated, yadda yadda. Haven’t seen it, but if you’re a fan I’d check it out. It’s in theaters now, I think. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/3 "2003-05-23T16:01:39Z")
I’ve read [Ebert’s review](http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/2003/05/051606.html), and it sounds great, but of course it isn’t showing anywhere near me. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/4 "2003-05-24T02:51:00Z")
I was in the National Spelling Bee in 1997. Spelling bees are grueling. I did them for years. It takes hours upon hours of practice. ---
**Author:** ![Flamsterette\_X](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/41988e/32.png) [@Flamsterette\_X](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flamsterette_X)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/5 "2003-05-24T03:52:15Z")
From what I’ve heard of that National Spelling Bee, those kids do an awful lot of work! (I have a copy of _Death by Spelling_, which I picked up in a Portland bookstore at least ten years ago on a whim) F\_X ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/6 "2003-05-24T04:01:48Z")
Wait, I just watched this last weekend on ESPN. Don’t tell me that they were showing a rerun? Do they rerun spelling bees? It was embarassing that these kids were accurately spelling words which I’d never heard of. One boy subdivided _onychophagic_ into the Greek roots, then spelled the word correctly. It was more than a bit humbling. And he lost. ---
**Author:** ![SnoopyFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@SnoopyFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnoopyFan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/7 "2003-05-24T05:18:53Z")
I have $10 that a homeschooled kid will win. They nearly always win stuff like this. ---
**Author:** ![Quantum\_Butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e79b87/32.png) [@Quantum\_Butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quantum_Butterfly)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/8 "2003-05-24T05:43:34Z")
I got second in the state spelling bee as a middle schooler, but not up to nationals. Probably would have made it if I’d bothered to study a bit more… oh well. As it is, I never have to use the spell check. I AM the family spell check! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-national-spelling-bee/176876/9 "2026-05-27T05:25:37Z")
(Cues Spongebob-esque voice) Twenty-three years later… The 2026 Bee is underway, and last time I checked, three rounds (two spelling, one definition) were completed. I also read somewhere that after they had 5- and 6-year-old participants in recent years, there is now a YOUNGER age limit, IIRC their 9th birthday being during the calendar year of competition. MHO: When I heard a couple years ago that the TV footage is tape delayed on the ION Channel, that’s when it clicked for me that it’s probably all rigged anyway.