National Spelling Bee Winner
Congratulations to Anurag Kashyap who won the National Spelling Bee this week. Here are articles about this from the San Diego Area, ESPN, and the Fox News.
A special congratulations to Theodore Yuan, Age 12 of Daniel Wright Junior High School, Lincolnshire, Illinois. He finished tied for 7th.
Here are the rankings for the top 10 finishers:
1st
Kashyap, Anurag, The San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego, California
2nd (tie)
Deri, Aliya, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California
Patel, Samir, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas
4th
Tarigopula, Rajiv, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri
5th (tie)
Chamberlin, Elicia, New Hampshire Union Leader, Manchester, New Hampshire
Winchester, Marshall, The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, North
7th (tie)
Close, Katharine, Asbury Park Press/Home News Tribune, Asbury Park, New Jersey
Ducote, Alexis, The American Press, Lake Charles, Louisiana
Hooks, Saryn, Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Yuan, Theodore, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois
What struck me about this year was that 6 of the top 27 spellers were home schooled, including Samir Patel who tied for second. I believe he was sixth last year. Homeschoolers made up 22% of these final contestants. As a side note, a homeschooler just won the National Geography Bee.
Why did this statistics stand out to me? It’s very simple. Homeschoolers make up just 2% of the student population, yet they had 22% in the top 27. That is astounding for homeschoolers and an indictment to our Public Education system.
National Center for Educational Statistics:
- 47.7 million children in public schools in 2001-2002
- 1.1 Million are Homeschooled
- 5.3 million students in private schools in 2001-2002
If you look at the reasons the NCES survey showed for homeschooling was:
- 31% homeschool because of the environment in Public Schools
- 30% to provide religious/moral teachings
- 16% because of the academics
For all those believing it is just the religious that home school, this shows that 47% of parents homeschool due to the poor academics and environment in the Public School system. I believe this spelling bee along with those in recent years are proving that our Public Education System is failing overall and needs to be reformed.
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It’s nice to get others opinions of what you write about. Thanks for stopping by.
Comment by Lennie — 6/8/2005 @ 7:47 pm
Congratulations to the spelling and geography bee homeschoole competitors and families. Watching the spelling bee on TV brought tears of joy to this old teacher’s eyes.
Comment by Bob Heiny — 6/10/2005 @ 8:19 am
Congratulations to the omeschooling families. I expect no less, as homeschooling is the finest form of education which parents can provide. My prayers go out to families who must rely upon government education in the same manner that my prayers go out to children in orphanages. Government schools, like orphanages, do the best they can to care for children whose parents cannot.
Comment by Carol Holliday — 9/18/2006 @ 11:23 pm