the S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G bee

the proud participants

Today was our annual school spelling bee. This is always a rather exciting day for me, and the more years we have participated, the cooler it gets.

This year, my class spelling bees were quite entertaining. In seventh grade, we have one clear winner but kept going back and forth for the runner-up position. It came down to two girls: one you would expect and another you totally would not because she acts as though she is too cool for things like spelling bees (but I know better. . . no one is too cool for spelling bees). The girl you would expect to win kept getting her word correct then missing the championship word or spelling without thinking and getting easy words wrong. As a result, the girl you would not expect spelled her words incorrectly THREE times so that the expected one could win. She had to think harder about misspelling "slaughter" and others than spelling them correctly. What a shame.

In eighth grade, four out of six students desperately wanted to win the title of Class 8's best speller and compete for the school title. The competition was fierce. One student among the four was first to get out on "prattle." At first she hoped that everyone else in the round would get out so that she would have another chance, but when her hopes were thwarted and her classmates spelled their words correctly, she rejoiced with those who rejoiced and mourned with those who misspelled. It was really sweet to see this biblical truth so clearly in action in our class spelling bee. It finally got down to two spellers, and things got really intense. One would get it, the other would miss, then the one would miss their championship word and vis-versa. We get going and going until one student remarked, "Man, this is better than a Cowboys game!" As a teacher, when your students compare professional sporting events to any activity in a classroom, it is a major victory. Anyway, we went through 19 rounds and I called--no true winner; we needed 2 representatives anyway.

This morning was the fateful morning of the spelling bee. It was really great to see 10 bright eyed students with an allegiance to language that clearly glorifies the Creator of the written word. This week I felt a special burden for my kids to understand the importance of language and feel a loyalty to it. First, we talked in class about last week's story on 60 Minutes about Jared Loughner, the shooter in the recent Tucson tragedy. While certainly insane, his friends explained that Loughner was a Nihilist and did not believe that language had no meaning. I was reminded that those ideas that life and language are meaningless have very real consequences. Then in preparation for the bee, I thought about how Christians should have a special affinity (a word one student lost on today) for language because of the nature of Heavenly Father. First, God created the world with words: "Let there be light." His power is showcased and channeled through his language. Also, Jesus Christ is called the "Word": "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." Jesus Christ is God's power in action at Creation and is called God's Word. Then, God communicates to us through written language in the Scripture (which is powerful and sharper that a two-edged sword). Of all of the ways he could communicate, he chose the written word. We have a special obligation to know and understand language just so that we can know and understand our God. Lastly, God cares about our language. Ephesians 4 says, "Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth" but instead to build one another up with encouraging and truthful words.

the winner (right) and alternate (left)

The bee went really well this morning. It went for quite a while; the winning word was "boutique." There was one student who I know wanted to win so badly; he was so careful and thoughtful with every letter he said. Unfortunately, he got out on protagonist; he spelled it "protaganist." But I know he will never forget how to spell it; he was writing it in big letter across his papers today. Believe it or not, the spelling bee has inspired many more thoughts, but for now, I am simply overwhelmed with the power of language in our daily lives and am glad to have the privilege of being an English teacher because I have the pleasure of exploring that linguistic power and nuance with pre-adolescents every day.