I have always been a voracious reader, and therefore learned to spell as a result of seeing a lot of words, although my pronouncing some of those words often caused a humorous response from my teachers.
My older daughter followed in my footsteps when it came to spelling, When she was in sixth form at Columbus School for Girls, she won the middle school spelling bee, and received a new dictionary as her first prize. The following year, it was expected that she would win again, so they came up with a different prize for first, and put the dictionary in as the second prize. Well, that year, she was beaten in the spelling bee, and so she got a second copy of the same dictionary.
My spelling ability has often helped me in business, and has amazed my friends when we are in trivia contests. But I do not understand the competitions where students are expected to memorize words that would never materialize in any actual setting.
Jeff Gerken
That’s very funny, Jeff. You would think that when the sponsors of the bee saw the outcome, they could have switched the prizes, so the winner would get the dictionary and your daughter would get the other prize.
Maybe it’s like having to understand algebra and geometry equations we’re not likely to use in real life.
It made me laugh to think of you possibly mispronouncing words you’d read when you were in school…I hate to think of how old I was when I realized I was saying “epitome” wrong! Oh, and plethora!
Epitome was one of those words that I had read, understood the meaning, but pronounced incorrectly.
Speaking for the many for whom spelling can be a challenge, I have to agree that memorizing words that have no application to actual writing and speaking never made sense to me. While I could memorize the words and do well on spelling tests, for me there was little carry over to using those words in my writing or my life. But that’s just me, I guess!
It would be much harder to remember how to spell words that you don’t use, Jeff, I agree. My paternal grandmother, who came to the US from Russia at age 12, prided herself on her spoken and written English, which was excellent. However, she mispronounced some words, such as “misled” (think long i and past participle). Very understandable.
I agree with Suzy; why give the same prize twice, as opposed to adapting and switching when the results were announced? I also understand the difficulty of trying to pronounce written words that we haven’t heard before. Landmines, galore. And memorizing the spelling of words that will never be used again (this was particularly true for SATs). I think this may have fallen out of custom, as those standardized tests seem to used less and less by colleges these days too. You’ve given us some compelling challenges here, Jeff.
Thanx for your story Jeff.
Tell your daughter that like heads, perhaps two dictionaries are better than one!
Joni Mitchell should revise her song “Twisted” to end with that phrase – “Two dictionaries are better than one.”
Actually, I think that Joni Mitchell song was a cover of something from several decades earlier.
Yes Jeff, Annie Ross wrote Twisted in the 50s and sung it with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross, wonderful song!