"Thank you for coming!" one of my colleagues who helped organize the school spelling bee said to me this afternoon.
"You don't have to thank me," I told her, "I wouldn't miss it!"
"Really?" she said, "but it's soooo bad."
"So bad it's good!" I answered.
And it's true-- the student council kids run the event after school, and although teachers are encouraged to have preliminary competitions, at this time of year, literally any kid who shows up gets a seat on the stage. All the kids are so darned earnest about it, too, reading and spelling words in what they must think of as their most mature voices.
"Could you repeat that?" contestants often squint at the lectern.
"Can you use it in a sentence?" they will ask the kids at the judges table, and after a flurry of fingers on key boards, someone will officiously put some form of the word, not necessarily the form that has been asked, into an often quite cryptic fragment.
The spellers nod their heads in knowing appreciation, lean into the microphone and let the letters rip.
"You don't have to thank me," I told her, "I wouldn't miss it!"
"Really?" she said, "but it's soooo bad."
"So bad it's good!" I answered.
And it's true-- the student council kids run the event after school, and although teachers are encouraged to have preliminary competitions, at this time of year, literally any kid who shows up gets a seat on the stage. All the kids are so darned earnest about it, too, reading and spelling words in what they must think of as their most mature voices.
"Could you repeat that?" contestants often squint at the lectern.
"Can you use it in a sentence?" they will ask the kids at the judges table, and after a flurry of fingers on key boards, someone will officiously put some form of the word, not necessarily the form that has been asked, into an often quite cryptic fragment.
The spellers nod their heads in knowing appreciation, lean into the microphone and let the letters rip.
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