Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010
You never forget that word
John Beaudoin, Journal Publisher
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Spelling bees are a pretty important part of grade school. Take it from the guy that took second.
It was down to Ruth Shaffer and me at Spring Branch Elementary in Independence. We were both in sixth grade and pretty competitive when it came to spelling competitions, math contests, everything. I even think we probably raced each other to the bus each day.
The rest of the kids in the spelling bee were long gone. And to this day, I couldn’t even tell you about the word that tripped them up.
But I sure remember mine – “improvement.” See, I dropped the first “e” for whatever reason and I immediately knew I was doomed.
As I was slowly belting out each letter, I saw the heads of my classmates drop as I left out a crucial vowel that, ultimately, cost me a trip to the county spelling bee.
Leave an opening like that for Ruth and she’d beat you every time. She spelled the next word right and then had to spell a final word in the next round to win, which, of course, she did.
Since that time, I have been beating myself up over that word. Why on earth would I drop that first “e” anyway? It was tragic.
I think I have since bounced back, however. And writing about that day probably helps a little with the wounds still left over from sixth grade.
This past week, I got to help judge a spelling bee at a local grade school and the memories of my own fateful day came rushing back.
The rules are just as tough as they were when I was a kid. You can ask for a definition or to have the word used in a sentence, but if you start the word, you cannot go back and change the order of the letters.
Several kids, out of sheer nervousness maybe, misspelled words they surely knew.
Others took a brave stab at a challenging word – I’m not sure I could have even pulled off “alchemy” at that age – and took their seat gracefully, which is all you can ask for from fourth, fifth and sixth grade kids.
And that’s a tough lesson to learn sometimes, that only one person is going to win an event.
The fun part about this spelling bee though was seeing the excitement on their faces when they got it right and the encouragement they got from their classmates.
Win or lose, everybody is going to miss a word at one point or another.
And I guarantee they won’t forget that word anytime soon.
John Beaudoin is publisher of the Blue Springs Journal. To respond to today’s commentary, call 816-282-7001 or e-mail jbeaudoin@bluespringsjournal.com.
