Spelling Bee

Most school systems fail us. If you are a teacher, that is not a poke at you – it is a poke at the system.

School (the system) has taught us all that spelling is big deal. It used to be. Multiplication and division is important – why? I can do almost any  math problem with my phone now.

Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 only is important because it is the answer to our 5th grade test. What was truly important was the idea that the world was not flat. The system forgets to teach that. A world that was not flat that was an Internetesque idea in its time – a game changing concept.

What if our kids had the chance to reenact landing in America on Santa Maria?  What if they planned what they had to pack for the trip? What if they had to communicate with the locals upon arrival? What if they learned how to sail the ocean? I can assure you that dreams would start if a teacher had the platform to encourage his/her students to go prove their prospective worlds are not flat.

Yet the system demands that clubs or groups be created in order to engage our creative.  When you hear things like the debate team, glee club, photography club, and entrepreneurship club your mind autopilots to Dorkville. Which is fine, just don’t teach your kids that mentality. Give it time, and they will find out that names like Jobs, Zuckerberg, and Buffet tend to be the mayors of Dorkville.

So you won the spelling bee? Big deal.

So you never won the spelling bee? Whoopdeedo.

Why do we even have spelling bees now? Bill Gates won the spelling bee for all of us when he created Word.

We all win when you are placed in atmosphere to create and imagine the next Windows or Facebook of the world. Only you win when you remember how to spell baccalaureate.