Scott Tibbs
blog post
February 1st, 2005
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From World Net Daily:
A school district in Rhode Island canceled its annual spelling bee this year because administrators decided the crowning of only one winner violates the main principle of the federal No Child Left Behind Act – that all children should succeed.
You have got to be kidding me. We might as well eliminate sports in schools as well, because that also establishes some children as winners and some children as losers. Eliminate grading while you're at it, because it just isn't fair that children who study hard (or children who are just intellectually gifted) get A's while other children get B's or C's.
This inane decision would make Karl Marx proud. Instead of each person using his or her individual talents to the best of his or her ability to achieve a goal, competition must be eliminated so all children can be the same. After all, the Soviet Union did it, and look how well that turned out.
The real world, of course, is very different from the Communist utopia lusted after by the folks in this Rhode Island school district. In the real world, hard work and natural talent allow people to go farther than their peers who do not work as hard or are not as talented. This is a lesson these children will learn eventually; silly acts of symbolism like removing a spelling bee will not change that.
I wonder if the school officials have considered the negative effects on self-esteem this could have for some students? Not all students are physically capable of starring in sports, but they can achieve some recognition by showcasing their academic talents.
Perhaps the real reason is that the school district is embarrassed about the home schooled children who frequently defeat children from government schools in national spelling bees.