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Spelling Bees R Obsolete

Why show off a skill rendered useless by machines?: Alexandra Petri

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 2, 2011 4:33 PM CDT

(Newser) – It’s time again for the Scripps National Spelling Bee—but these days, it’s more “hilarious” than educational, writes Alexandra Petri in the Washington Post. “What better way to announce to the world at large that you have a totally useless and unmarketable skill—besides, I guess, framing your sociology degree?” Champion spellers should “savor it now,” she adds, because their "services will never be required again" in this age of Microsoft Word and iPhones.

Indeed, being a great speller is kind of like having perfect pitch, she argues. "It does you no particular good, and it makes your life less comfortable than it would be otherwise." Most people get by "just fine not wincing when someone’s put an E where an A ought to be. But you are in acute physical pain,” Petri writes. Still, “on the bright side, spellers," if our spell-checking "gadgets ever stop werking, we’re all scrued.”

A speller does her thing at the annual bee.
A speller does her thing at the annual bee.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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To think that this would have been considered the hallmark of civilization once, and now we leave it in the hands of devices that break when you drop them in public toilets! - Alexandra Petri

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 22 comments
Person12345
Jun 3, 2011 6:56 AM CDT
What a really stupid article this is.  Why on earth would you discourage any person from acquiring useful skills.  No one will ever convince me that learning how to spell correctly is a waste of time.  Not only is it a valuable skill in everyday life, it encourages kids to use their brains when so many others are dumbing down and wasting their time in school.  Our young people need to be rewarded and recognized for their accomplishments.
gunther84
Jun 3, 2011 5:58 AM CDT
If you want to extrapolate this out, you could say that mathematical skills are pretty useless, and have been since calculators were invented.  I suppose this author was a pretty poor speller her whole life, therefore its better to slam something one is not good at, rather than applaud these kids for their talent.
wellroundedsquare
Jun 3, 2011 12:58 AM CDT
I have seen people on countless occasions write "to" when they mean "too", "there" when they mean "they're" and other supposedly minor faults that irk me beyond belief. Maybe I'm a stickler, but proper spelling and grammar is a vital skill for everyone

 
spelling • spelling bee • Scripps National Spelling Bee

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