A Change in the Spelling Bee?

For a guy who has been teased for more than 30 years about the way he spells pholks, I actually do consider myself a good speller.

Admittedly, I'm not a great speller but I consider myself at least a little above average. What's even more important, however, is the fact (phact) that I'm bright enough to know how to use a dictionary. Misspelling is a personal peeve. There is nothing wrong with not knowing how to spell certain words. But damnit, I have enough sense to look it up. Mistakes happen and I don't think I know of anyone who hasn't slipped up in their spelling. But pholks, it is pretty easy to determine how good a person can spell by reading something they wrote. Not a novel or essay or anything like that. Just a simple letter or note can tell a lot about the spelling capabilities of a person.

I firmly believe that a person who can't spell well at all, probably isn't a very good reader.

But before I get too far off on a tangent, my concern is the recent National Spelling Bee which was seen by millions live and on tape on television and was written about in numerous publications.

I would like to start a campaign to overhaul this annual event in which the nation's top spellers compete for a title and scholarships or whatever.

My big complaint? The choice of words these kids are asked to spell. If a youngster can memorize a couple of dictionaries, he or she can win. I consider myself relatively well-read but I'd bet no more than 5 percent of the words in the spelling bee are words I've ever heard of. I certainly don't use them.

Okay pholks, (folks, for you purists) how many of you have used any of these words in the last month: Resipiscence, inesculent, prolegomenon, consanguinity, lapidicolous, or orrismologly?

And who among us has used even one of them in a sentence?

The dictionary says that lapidicolous means "living under a stone." Before I looked that one up, I knew it had something to do with stone, due to the lapidary root word. But I can't remember ever using it in a conversation, a term paper or a love letter. I may have said, sometime in my life something like "Wow, I turned over that rock and something was crawling around. Scared the hell out of me, whatever it was."

I 'm certain I never said, "Guess what? I was out in the field and I discovered something lapidicolous."

As a journalist I was taught not to use words that the average person doesn't understand. News writers used to be told to write to the eighth grade level. I would guess that the same is probably true today, give or take a grade or two. Or course, the Wall Street Journal and other "high level" publications are geared to a different readership than the average newspaper or news magazine, but I bet even they don't use words like those tossed out in the National Spelling Bee.

I think the contest should focus more on common words with each contestant having to recite the definition, use it properly in a sentence and provide a synonym.

Perhaps the top National Spelling Bee officials will have a "resipiscence" (a change of mind or heart) and heed my suggestions. Make the contest even more entertaining for us more "common pholk."

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