I must of read a different page from you. Of the top seven, 4 were male, hardly a “majority female,” and only two were noted as speaking other languages, nor was there any reason to think most were immigrants except for the one from Jamaica and the two with Indian-sounding names, who might well not be immigrants, but have parents who immigrated before they were born.

If you’re interested in spelling bees you should watch the documentary “Spellbound” from around 2001 or so, you can get it at the library. It shows that the main thing the winners have in common is tremendous work ethic and willingness to study 8+ hours a day for years. The documentary is amazing. Unfortunately a sad footnote is one of the children .profiled later committed suicide while he was in medical school. There’s a dark side to high drive too.

A good fiction film about spelling bees is “Akeelah and the Bee.” I got that from the library too.

Not sure how to take your comment. While I agree that anything we do requires a good work ethic to succeed, we seem to be failing at that as parents and educators here in North America.

The page does show clearly that the majority of those children who succeeeded at the bee, had either a background from countries that stress work ethic, or attended private schools, or were home schooled. Granted a few of them seem to be from regular North American middle schools. But the focus must remain on the facts: percentage wise, kids from countries other than Canada and US do have a better work ethic and more respect for education.

Case in point: the teacher fired in Edmonton for giving failing grades where failing grades were due. It’s not the teacher who should be fired - perhaps the parents who can’t raise a child with enough respect for a solid work ethic. If students provide nothing to their teachers, after the teacher’s frequent attempts to remedy the situation (heard him speak live on radio as to the MANY MANY options he offered) they are - snowflake or not - doomed to fail; and failure should start early, quite simply to teach lessons about life. This is especially true of school, where it is, or should be a safe environment that would allow for the situation to be remedied. No one is saying that the competitive extreme is the answer either, but you get out, what you put in - and coming second at a spelling bee should also make one proud.

One’s background or culture shouldn’t matter; but it does. The majority of kids raised in society where their lack of work ethic is praised, will only lead to a downfall of that particular culture in the future. Either we make every child count - and EDUCATE them all with similar expecations; or we wait and see. Eventually, those who are weaker will be eliminated by the sheer law of the jungle. And then we may realize that we “should’ve, would’ve, could’ve” but it will have been too late.