Dear Editor,
A few weeks ago I watched what I believe was a poorly conducted Spelling Bee competition at the Republic Bank in Rose Hall Town. I say ‘poorly conducted’ because I believe it caused great injustice to the children who represented primary schools in Region Six. The final of this competition was aired on television for all to see.
Many of the words that the students were asked to spell were not pronounced properly. It is my knowledge that the part of speech of the word, the origin, usage within a sentence and the correct pronunciation (nothing further from that) has to be made known to the spellers so that their work would be made easier.
That is my idea of a spelling bee. Has this method changed? I really do not know.
However, I made a list of several words that were mispronounced sinfully. On the other hand several words which none of the students was able to spell were not even spelt so that they might have known how they are spelt.
I found that very presumptuous since this was a Spelling Bee competition and the fact that the words that either team could not spell were not spelt by the person/s conducting the competition.
Anyhow, for the information of the spellers, here is a list of the words and their correct spellings – spellings they did not receive during the competition: corporal, maintenance, questionnaire, commemorate, resurrection, substantially, pronunciation, commendable, curriculum, discrepancy, retaliation, differentiate, etc.
Finally, new words were being called out even while the audience was clapping loudly. The whole thing was ridiculous.
Yours faithfully,
Leon J Suseran
