I’ll let you in on another secret; I think Spelling Bees are totally dumb. Don’t worry, this isn’t a circa 2012 article about if ESPN should be broadcasting it (they don’t anymore) and if it’s a sport or not (it isn’t). Rather, I’m going to cut down to the bone; the Spelling Bee is a relic of a bygone era that has outlived its usefulness.
Essentially, my main beef with the National Spelling Bee is that it prepares students for a world that no longer exists. We live in an age with tools such as Grammarly and the classic Spell Check; merely being good at spelling isn’t a hard requirement anymore. In case you haven’t noticed, AI programs such as ChatGPT are perfectly capable of correcting the spelling of written documents (or even writing them completely). While I’m not saying that rote memorization serves no purpose in the modern world, merely being able to regurgitate rote memorization on command isn’t the sole value proposition of a winning career anymore. However, an AI is only as good as it’s training data, which inherently has a past-facing bias. Thus, we will need humans to solve the problems of today, and more importantly, solve the problems of tomorrow. Fortunately, the sports-ification of other mental competitions (instead of the Spelling Bee) could prove to be vastly more useful in serving that end, and society as a whole.
“Well Dan, do you have any suggestions for what to replace the Spelling Bee with?” a persistent reader of mine will ask. One of the skills that would be far more valuable than reciting the spelling of a word would be to challenge students to identify a problem in society, then to provide a workable solution to the problem, preferably as starting a business. To a smaller extent, this already happens. A few years ago, I watched an amazing National Geographic documentary called Own The Room in which several student entrepreneurs compete in an international pitch contest. For a country that prides itself as a world leader and a culture that puts entrepreneurs on magazine covers and showers them with venture capital, It’s utterly baffling to me that we aren’t having these contests in every high school in America. Similar to the current edition of the Scripps Spelling Bee, the 50 state champions can compete on live TV. Given that there is a sizable audience for Shark Tank, there would certainly be an audience for such a contest. The high school students could pick between a scholarship to a top business school (such as Wharton, Northwestern, Harvard and so on) or seed money to start their business. A collegiate-level version of the contest could just as easily be held too. Make no mistake, the next Mark Zuckerberg is definitely out there, we just have to draw him out.
“Well Dan, not every kid is going to become an entrepreneur! What now, smarty-pants?” a reader with a defeatist attitude will react to my actionable suggestion. Seeing how I’ve been tasked with solving all of your problems for you, I’ll take this one on as well. Readers of my past work will know that I’m big on understanding incentives and biases, and many high schools already have a Model UN club, we can start televising that as well. Admittedly, I’m not 100% sure of what such a contest would look like (my alma mater had no such club, sadly) but being able to steel-man and advocate for a variety of countries of differing ethnicities, religions, economic interests, languages, natural resources and geographies would produce a population capable of seeing multiple sides of an issue. For example, a contest would be given a certain time limit to “represent” Israel on one matter to a panel of judges, then Turkey on another matter. This is in stark contrast to the mess of radicalization that we have now. Since 24/7 political news channels are already widely popular, and C-SPAN airs real-life politics on live TV, there would definitely be an audience for such a contest. These can even be marketed as unearthing the political leaders of tomorrow. Much like my idea for the pitch contest, we can hold-and televise-both high school and collegiate versions of this contest. High school winners could compete for scholarships to universities with top political science, law, and sociology programs. Additionally, I’m sure that the heads of various political parties, think tanks, and non-profits would be interested in scouting the collegiate version of the event as well; gotta keep the pipeline flowing!
“Well Dan, not every kid is a charismatic networker that’ll wind up changing the world, so what will they do?” a pessimist will ask. First, I’d recommend changing that fixed mindset of yours, as it won’t take you very far in life. But back to the topic at hand; students who are more inclined towards being scientists and engineers can participate in televised science fairs. “But Dan, we already have those!” the lethargic peanut gallery will retort. Ahh yes, but this time will have a twist; high school students will compete for entry into/full-ride scholarships to leading STEM-based schools such as MIT, CalTech, Georgia Tech, Stanford, and so on. The collegiate version can compete for research dollars. Better yet, with some clever marketing and bonus-hungry corporate recruiters, the contest might just land some big-name tech companies, arms manufacturers, drug companies or other major employers that hire STEM grads to solve hard problems to sponsor the event; the prizes would be fast-tracked job interviews.
“Well Dan, not every kid does well under pressure!” is a retort I’ll definitely hear. High school students who don’t “win” these contests but do well regardless could still very likely attract the eyes of universities. After all, it’s not like the Heisman Trophy winner is the only prospect that makes it to the NFL. Similarly, for college students that do not “win” but still put on an impressive showing in front of a national TV audience will still benefit. I find it hard to believe that a future employer or investor wouldn’t be interested in at least a hallway discussion after the contest ends; such conversations tend to snowball into larger opportunities.
Societies get what they televise, so let’s televise something actually useful…
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