PrintJune 19, 2010
How Do You Spell Response?
When my children were in elementary school, one of my favorite volunteer activities was assisting at the yearly spelling bee. The best spellers from the third, fourth, and fifth grades would battle it out for trophies and medals. My job was to be the "comforter" backstage. When a contestant misspelled a word, he would have to make that long walk offstage, where I would be waiting to tell him how proud I was that he had tried his best.And I was proud of those kids. I can't think of too many adults who would stand all alone in front of a microphone and a cafeteria full of grownups and take a chance on being wrong. Because make no mistake about it: When the spelling bee moderator says "I'm sorry, you're wrong," there's no ambiguity. It's one of the few remaining activities left in society where we can actually say to a kid, "You did it wrong. You may have tried hard. You may have really, really, really wanted to be right. But you're wrong."Unspoken during...(Read Full Article)
