Anurag Kashyap is the national spelling bee champion. Tied for second place: Samir Patel and Aliya Deri.
Samir ultimately stumbled on the word “Roscian,” meaning skilled in acting. Two years ago, when Samir tied for third place, bee winner Sai Gunturi predicted he would be a force to be reckoned with in future contests.
All immigrants! What a great country.
– Adam
I don’t mean to sound cynical, but isn’t it obvious a person named “Anurag Kashyap” would have a natural advantage in spelling bees?
🙂
Ross (me, I have trouble just remembering how to spell “Levatter”) Levatter
Not only all immigrants — it looks like they all trace their families to the Indian sub-continent.
Indian-Americans: More than just convenience store clerks.
The Washington Post story did quote a spectator noting that the top 3 finishers were Indian. A quick scan of recent winners suggests that Indians have won something like 5 of the last 7 Spelling Bees. Take out the Indians and the home schoolers, and maybe the rest of us would have a chance.
Are they all immigrants? Surely they’re just as likely, indeed more likely, to be the children of immigrants?
“Spellbound,” this documentary on the national bee, does a pretty good job on showing how the backgrounds of the participants affected their performance. Most of the successful ones were from immigrant backgrounds. Those who weren’t were home or private schooled, mostly from New England. The only girl who was a product of the DC public school system made it to the national bee but then fell out in the earlier rounds.
Like David Boaz said above, the “rest of us” would have much more of a chance simply because whomever we are can’t compete with the more focused and individualized education of the home schoolers or the tradtionally more intellectual rigor that many Indian parents apply to their children.
Just personally, I’ve also noticed that children of more recent immigrants tend to experience more pressure to succeed academically than those whose parents are first or second generation.
“Take out the Indians and the home schoolers, and maybe the rest of us would have a chance.”
Given the current “state of the art” in political philosophy, I believe a good case could be made for discriminating against Indians and home schoolers in the name of “social justice” and “equal opportunity”…
Melting Pot, Tossed Salad — Whatever
Conservatives are fond of pointing out when a home-schooler wins the National Spelling Bee. I say it’s a fine day…
Brian, I’m having trouble following you. You wrote:
–Just personally, I’ve also noticed that children of more recent immigrants tend to experience more pressure to succeed academically than those whose parents are first or second generation.–
But those whose parents are first generation immigrants ARE “children of more recent immigrants.”
Please clarify.
Ross L.
In India, of course, that fact is not unnoted.
Ross–
All I meant was that children of parents who were born abroad (that is those kids who are first generation, not second) on average are pressured to succeed in academics more than kids whose parents were born here.
This morning (6/6) NPR’s Morning Edition had an interesting story on the growth of tutoring in the U.S. One woman, an immigrant from Japan, I believe, said she appreciated the American system of education for fostering independent thinking; but she also enrolled her kids in Kumon (a tutoring program built on a Japanese model) because American education is weak in teaching basics.
It’s not just spelling bees…
I had a problem with my Windows software; called the technical support line at Microsoft and all was taken care of efficiently and very helpfully.
I then got a followup email from the person who helped me.
His name: Nitin Sandal
He told me if his service wasn’t excellent, I could contact his manager.
Manager’s name: Amitava Chatterjee
Ross L.
I don’t want to indict Americans as a whole, but there is a culture of complacency that wealth and prosperity brings. Immigrants from nations like India that are just starting to open up are only tasting the benefits of a free society with relatively free markets (SCOTUS’s decision today aside) such as the US’s. More are therefore likely to work extra hard at advancement once they arrive there.
I agree that there’s a “culture of complacency” in American education. The great thing is that, instead of trying to work harder, the natural American reaction is to lash out against those who are harder-working than us by trying to prevent more-qualified people in other countries from “taking jobs” from Americans. I mean, you don’t really need to know how to spell “Roscian” when picketing/writing angry letters to your local newspaper/congressman.
-sam
Ross Levatter: Do you mean to say that the kid with a name like Anurag Kashyap would have a natural advantage in spelling, because you are the one who would have trouble speling it? By that logic I think you should have the same advantage because I had trouble speling your name had to copy-paste it here.
Brian Radzinsky: It is true that India has got relatively freer markets in the last decade or so but it always had a relativley free society.