Spelling Bees, who take part in the prestigious annual Scripps National Spelling Bee competition in the U.S., have become synonymous with the height of this intellectual contest, which has transmogrified over the years. The journey to the competition typically begins at the local level, where students compete in school and community spelling bees. Winners of these contests move on to regional competitions, which serve as qualifying rounds for the national stage. Once at nationals, they are pushed through three rounds before making it to the final round. Through each stage, the field of spellers gradually narrows until a select few spellers make it to the Championship Finals.
Significantly, for years the competition, which is loaded with plenty of excitement and nail-biting moments, has been dominated by children of Indian origin, who comprise just about 1% of the total US population. If the 14-year-old Harini Logan from Texas was crowned champion in 2022, (her final winning word was “moorhen” – a female red grouse), this year it was the turn of Dev Shah from Florida to win the contest with the word “psammophile” (a plant or an animal that thrives in sand). In a research, exploring the amazing success rate of Indian-American students at the Spelling Bee, it has been revealed that exceptional quality of memorization and networks give these students an edge over others. It is completely a normal scenario in an Indian-American household to see kids knowing not one, but multiple dictionaries by heart, astoundingly by the age of 12 !
Ranganathan Sivakumar
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