Thursday, May 28, 2009

I am not smart

Sometimes I get all uppity and declare myself a smarty pants and then I watch the National Spelling Bee and I know I'm not at all.

These kids are all, "What's the language of origin?" or "What's the etymology" and I'm all, "What's etymology?"

Okay, fine I figured out what etymology is, but I do not know how to spell one single word I have watched so far.

Scardoodledom? Really? (I am not making that up.)

These kids are HARD CORE! I can't imagine being that "in" to spelling. Crazy!

Hydrargyrum, no lie.

And they spell the words out on their hands. CRAZY! I'd lose my place.

I'd be all, "Hyd...uh what was the word again?" OR, I'd ask all the questions, like, "what's the definition, what's the alternative pronunciation, what's the etymology?" And then real sly-like, I'd be all, "What's the exact spelling please?" HA! Sneak it in there like I'm allowed to ask.

Take that National Spelling Bee.

Is this fun for these children, this crazy, extreme spelling game? Cuz I don't love scrabble, so I'm trying to figure out how this is fun.

The thing is, these children have NEVER heard these words before, they just know enough about etymology that they FIGURE IT OUT from NOTHING.

Sheesh. I am NOT smarter than a fifth grader. That much is certain.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Have you ever watched the movie Akeela (no idea how to spell it lol) and the Bee? It's about an inner city girl that wants to be in the National Spelling Bee and what she goes through to get there. Seriously, I wouldn't ever work my child that hard! I think kids should be kids, with boundaries.
I'm not smarter than a Fifth Grader either.

Jae said...

I watched it too. Morgs, we are nerds.

On the bright side, I learned how to spell etymology!

BloggingBills said...

Boo Boo Head:

After many years of working with kids I've learned, either you have the spelling bug or you don't. It's a gift (kind of like the gift of tongues) and so don't worry.

Also, you never learned phonics so you'll probably always need spell check.

Also it might be genetic ie. your dad can't spell so maybe you inherited that gene splice.

Love ya,
Can't wait to see ya!
MA

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