Spelling bee 'octo-champs' describe the night the 'dictionary lost'

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We'd challenge you to have even heard of some of the words, let alone to spell them. But they're just some of the words that the eight winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee conquered late Thursday to be crowned co-champions in a night that made spelling history.


The winner was slated to receive $50,000. But with eight different winners, they'll take home $50,000 apiece. The eight appeared Friday morning on CNN's "New Day."

"Honestly at this point it becomes less about the money and more about the lessons you've learned throughout the spelling bee and the great experiences here and the memories you make," Shruthika Padhy said.

"How do you spell magnanimous?" CNN's John Berman joked.

They told the story of the night the dictionary lost
This year's competition, held in Washington, D.C., was unprecedented. The official pronouncer, Dr. Jacques Bailly, called the group the "most phenomenal assemblage of super-spellers" in the bee's history. After enduring 17 rounds, Bailly told the competitors there weren't enough challenging words left in the dictionary, and after three last rounds, all those left standing would be named co-champions.

From that point on, not a single one of them misspelled a word.

"When did you get a sense that the dictionary here was losing?" Berman asked.

"When Dr. Bailly announced three more rounds and all of us would be octo-champs, that was the moment that I thought all of us could do it," Abhijay Kodali said. "All of the rest of these seven amazing spellers could do it."

He knew they could do it because many of them follow the same strategies to prepare for the big event.

"As a speller, you know how hard everyone else has worked and you know how much they deserve to win because you know you're here with everyone else. You're all finalists in the national spelling bee," Sohum Sukhatankar said.

Christopher Serrao added, "Most of us study language patterns and roots and study additional words to understand them."

The training regimen can be ruthless.

"I study, like, four to five hours on weekdays. But when the competition became near, I ramped it up, and I studied as much as I could, maybe like an extra one or two hours," Kodali said. "And 10 hours on the weekends."

A final challenge
Berman asked them if they could spell the first name of his co-host Alisyn Camerota, adding that, although it sounds like "Allison," it's spelled in a "highly unusual" way.

The octo-champions conferred. One said he thought he knew it.

"No, highly unusual," another said.

They conferred a moment longer, and the greatest spellers in the world delivered their verdict.

"A-L-Y-S-S-O-N."

Berman delivered the dreaded news that not a single one of them had to hear last night. "Unfortunately, that is incorrect."

The octo-champions turned to each other, stunned. "Wait ... what?"

"They broke the dictionary. But we broke the spelling bee champions with the name Alisyn Camerota," Berman said.

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7 of the 8 Spelling Bee winners are Indian Americans. Here's why that's not surprising

This year, 562 spellers competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and after a grueling 20 rounds, the eight left at the end were named co-champions.

Just a cursory scan across their faces is an insight into a steely culture of excellence that's been dominating American spelling contests.

Seven of the eight winners this year are of Indian descent. And no, they're not born great — they're made great through a culture that instills a drive for achievement and mastery of the English language.

A culture that breeds spelling greatness

South Asian-Americans have come out on top each of the past 12 years.
In 2015, Shalini Shankar, a professor of anthropology and Asian-American studies at Northwestern University, told CNN that spelling bees can be a prestige activity for Indian-American parents. Many immigrants from South Asia are well-educated, success-driven professionals and they want their kids to be that way too.

"Parents invest a lot of their time with their kids," she said. "They prioritize education and have the economic means to have a parent stay at home. It's much more a socio-economic factor than a gene."
That same year, writer Gurnek Bains argued that one reason for South Asians' dominance in spelling bees was steeped in history. Over millennia, Indian culture developed "15 elaborate mnemonic devices," aiding in a near-perfect oral transmission of India's sacred Vedic texts like the "Mahabharat." That cultural and linguistic feat was so impressive that UNESCO proclaimed in 2003 that it represented "a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity."

Shankar spent six years researching parents of children who excelled in spelling bees and published "Beeline: What Spelling Bees Reveal About Generation Z's New Path to Success" this year. She argued that so-called Bee Parents represented a new type of parenting style that could extend beyond the Indian-American community.

In a CNN opinion article published on Friday, she wrote that she observed an increasing focus on a performance-oriented childhood. "This suggests a shift may be underway — away from a play-based childhood to one marked by competition and recognition, especially through digital platforms."

South Asian students prepare through a network of national competitions

One key to success is the South Asian Spelling Bee, which sponsors numerous regional spelling competitions in the run-up to a national South Asian spelling competition.

This year, one of the eight winners, Sohum Sukhatankar, cut his teeth by taking home that prize. And he shares his glory atop the Scripps National Spelling Bee with Abhijay Kodali, who was the national runner-up in the South Asian Spelling Bee.

And there's something particularly special happening in the Indian-American community in the Dallas area: Three of the eight Scripps co-champions this year hailed from north Texas, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Besides spelling-specific competitions, Indian-American students also prepare via academic competitions run by the North South Foundation. The non-profit runs competitions in 35 states in which more than 18,000 students participate, according to 2015 data.

Of the Scripps National Spelling Bee finalists this year, 25 of the 50 were Indian-American.
Sukhanatar, the co-champion from Dallas, was just one of many North South Foundation alumni whose national spelling bee success the group has trumpeted.

7 of the 8 Spelling Bee winners are Indian Americans. Here's why that's not surprising

This year, 562 spellers competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and after a grueling 20 rounds, the eight remaining contestants were named co-champions.

www.cnn.com

 

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What I learned from parents at the National Spelling Bee
By Shalini Shankar

This op-ed was published on May 30, 2019, before the finals of the National Spelling Bee.
When four-time Scripps National Spelling Bee competitor Shayley Martin wasn't feeling challenged in her Floyd, Virginia, elementary school, teachers had a hard time keeping her interested.
Her mother Lydeana, who spoke with me while I was researching my book "Beeline," advocated for Shayley with school officials, but faced resistance.

"People perceive you as this really pushy mom that's trying to torture their kid," Lydeana told me over a lunch with her and Shayley. Shayley, then 14, grimaced and interjected, "When my mom talks about this she always sounds like one of those freaky Tiger Moms, because it's like, 'My child needs the best!'"

Shalini Shankar

Shayley and her mother are like many parents I met over the six years that I conducted research at spelling bees. I began to recognize distinctive traits in Generation Z (born after 1996), including that it is the most diverse, containing the most mixed race kids and children of immigrants.

These kids are being raised in a competitive childhood environment. The National Spelling Bee (held this week in Washington, DC), which has become tougher each year, is now but one of many kid-focused televised contests.

The scale and intensity of the Bee are similar to other televised children's contests. Junior versions of shows like "Chopped," "Dancing with the Stars," "Project Runway," and others reveal just how many kids are focusing on becoming experts at complex skills at a young age.

Although only a small subset of children participate in such contests, they may offer a window into part of this generation's parenting priorities. It also suggests a shift may be underway-- away from a play-based childhood to one marked by competition and recognition, especially through digital platforms.

While some white middle-class parents may lament or outright reject such a shift, others are embracing a performance-oriented childhood and doing their best to keep up with pace-setting immigrants. Those who have done this have a better chance of being on the National Spelling Bee stage, and likely other platforms, over the course of their childhood.

As terms to explain different parenting styles, helicopter, stealth-fighter and Bee Parenting are of course limited. Anyone who has children knows that parenting is a complex, emotionally charged daily balance of individual personalities and needs; it is shaped by time and resource constraints as much as it is by idealized values.


Still, if stealth-fighter and Bee Parenting help explain how Gen Z is being raised and how these approaches differ from the helicopter parenting Millennials experienced, we can piece together a much clearer understanding of what drives Gen Z to thrive, compete and succeed.

What I learned from parents at the National Spelling Bee | CNN

Anthropologist Shalini Shankar spent six years doing research on spelling bees and talking to parents of competitors. She says the National Spelling Bee helps illuminate GenX-ers' approaches to parenting Gen Z kids.

www.cnn.com