It’s that time of year again! The Scripps National Spelling Bee is currently underway in Washington DC for the 79th time. 4 rounds of competition were held today, with championship rounds taking place tomorrow, June 1.
The National Spelling Bee was started in 1925 by the Louisville Courier-Journal. In 1941 it was taken over by Scripps, a media company. With the exception of World War II years 1943 and 1944, the competition has been held every year. Only three times have there been co champions. There have been a total of 81 champions, 42 girls and 39 boys.
Take a look at some of the words on the website, and results from today’s rounds. Can you spell these words without spellcheck? Did you even know some of these words existed? These kids deserve a lot of respect!
Roughly 275 children have made it to the national finals, from local competitions sponsored by Scripps and 268 local sponsoring organizations. These local competitions are held throughout the US, and in Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Guam, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, The US Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, and American Samoa. This year’s group is the largest group of competitors ever to advance to the finals.
Lately, the competition has received attention in film. In 2002 the documentary Spellbound detailed the experience of the competition. More recently the movie Akeelah and the Bee opened, showing a fictitious account of a young African American girl overcoming obstacles to win the national bee. This year 196 students from public schools will be joined by 26 private school students, 13 parochial school students, 3 charter school students, and 37 home schoolers.
This year, ABC will broadcast the Bee in prime time. Tune in to ABC at 8 pm on Thursday, June 1, for a 2 hour broadcast of the spelling bee and the final rounds.