Spelling Bee analytics
It is surprising that very few academic books have been published analyzing the United States Spelling Bee competitions — one of which is “Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal About Generation Z’s New Path to Success” by Shalini Shanka.
Tyler Cowen thinks the book is — “Not as analytical as I was wanting, but more analytical than I had been expecting.”
Time management is a skill that Sriram Hathwar acquired over the course of his spelling career. He balanced his day carefully, aware that it was important to play sports and to spend time with his brother and on homework and other things. About 50 percent of his free time was allotted to spelling. His mother confirmed his interest in things other than spelling, adding, “But spelling was his passion.” Sriram plays the oboe and piano and enjoys chess, badminton, tennis, basketball, and ice skating. He likes reading and volunteers at his local library. He plays on his school’s tennis team and is a member of his school’s marching band, for which he plays flute. When we spoke at the end of his spelling career in 2014, he was learning four languages, including Sanskrit and Mandarin. Being multilingual has allowed him to develop a deeper appreciation of the English language.
Prior to becoming the 2014 National Spelling Bee cochampion, Sriram won the South Asian Spelling Bee in 2013, the NSF junior spelling bee in 2009, the NSF senior spelling bee in 2012, and the NSF intermediate vocabulary bee in 2013. Sriram’s post-spelling-career goals include geography and math competitions and more international travel. Sriram has entrepreneurial aspirations as well. He and his friend from the Bee, Shreyas Parab, won the Diamond Challenge for small business in 2015 to develop a spelling bee training platform. By fifteen, Sriram had delivered two TEDx Talks about his experiences as an elite speller. He had the honor of meeting President Obama at the White House to be commended for his achievements.
For Sriram, the National Spelling Bee offered a chance to work on his self-presentation, which improved dramatically over the years. Giving a good public interview and speaking on live media are adult skills that Sriram mastered in middle school. He believes one of the greatest abilities honed from his spelling career is developing a strong work ethic and persevering through difficulties. Mrs. Hathwar noted that Sriram had become far more confident and independent over his years of competing. Helping coach his younger brother, Sriram quizzed Jairam and taught him Latin and Greek roots. “He might have a good chance,” Sriram told me in 2014. I nodded.
Two years later, after Jairam was named cochampion as well, the Hathwar brothers published a book called Words from the Champs. In it, they describe their path to success in the spelling bee, talk about some of their post-win experiences, and recommend study words for national level contests — just several thousand that they think could be helpful. In addition to helping out with educational competitions in the United States, the brothers are involved with Spelling Bee of China, that country’s national bee, attending as ambassadors.
— Shankar, Shalini. Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal About Generation Z’s New Path to Success
For Discussion: Would US style competitive spelling bee competitions work in other countries?
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