The spelling bee just undercut its best competitors

April 11, 2013 00:59

America's Super Bowl of spelling was thrown into disarray yesterday, less than two months before the event, with the announcement that its adolescent competitors will now be quizzed on what words mean in addition to how they're spelled.

Quartz reports: The stated reason for the change is that the Scripps National Spelling Bee has always been about 'knowledge of the English language'.

That's curious because, in point of fact, it has always been about spelling and nothing else. The tense competition, which is broadcast on national television, has since 1925 only asked that its contestants be able to spell. S-P-E-L-L.

Vocabulary is an entirely different, if also worthy, skill. But nobody asks chess masters to be good at backgammon, too.

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