Spelling Bees

My two daughters are heading to the district-wide spelling bees in New Britain for their grades (8th and 4th, respectively).

This will be our 8th-grader's fifth straight trip to the district finals; she's 4-0, thus far, and this is the fourth-grader's first opportunity since they don't hold spelling bees for the lower grades.

As usual, I again would've be knocked out before either of my daughters:

"blithe" I spelled "blythe" (not recognizing that I was thinking of the incomparable Ms. Danner!)

and

"eraser" I spelled "erasure" (not recognizing that I was just looking for "A Little Respect")

I do like the way the New Britain Consolidated School District does this because their bees aren't tied to any regional or national bees that often force kids to spell words that nobody outside of very specialized fields would ever encounter. While it makes for high drama, I don't see the larger educational value of the national finals as covered on ESPN.

A spelling bee that rewards avid readers is just fine with me.