Probably everyone reading this has experienced anxiety when asked to stand in front of a classroom and correctly spell an ever-increasingly difficult list of words.
You spell until you can’t and then you’re out. And then you watched your classmates duel it out with words you likely haven’t even heard of much less know the meaning of or how to spell them. (The only thing worse than the classroom “Spelling Bee” was in Algebra when you were asked to go to “the board” and show your work, but I digress.)
Nothing apparently is sacred these days including the Spelling Bee, at least according to Scripps National Spelling Bee, the national sponsors of the contest.
Every year the sponsor of the contest releases a list of 450 words that a 3rd grader is expected to know. It includes words with a “preferred spelling” (what used to be called correct spelling at Molden Elementary) along with the now politically acceptable spelling of the same word. I’m looking at you, “womyn”.
Here’s part of the 3rd grade list for your reading enjoyment. After we abolish the U.S. Department of Education, perhaps we can start abolishing this type of nonsense and agree on the proper way to spell words in the English language rather than the politically correct way some prefer.