BUZZY MATH
The Scripps National Spelling Bee folks want to charge every school (including homeschool associations) in the country $99 for the right to send one of their kids to the first round of competition. They claim that they’re operating at a deficit in the “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” According to this site, there are approximately 100,000 K-12 schools. Figure at least 80% of them are K-8, the ages for the bee. 80,000 at $99 each raises a cool $8M. It seems the not-for-profit Scripps Foundation might be planning on turning a tidy (non) profit this year.
7 Responses to “BUZZY MATH”
 Comment by Linda Reed September 16th, 2007 at 11:52 pm |
Boy am I disappointed. My son is a great speller, but very shy, and this is excellent practice for him. With the experience of 2 bees behind him, and in 6th grade this year, he is in an increasingly better position to do well. Do you know if I should go ahead & register him or hope they change the rules? Please respond to my private e-mail if you can. I won’t be back to this blog. Thanks! Blessings, |
 Comment by Nance Confer September 17th, 2007 at 7:56 am |
Why are you disappointed? $99 seems a small price to pay — or $10 for individuals — for something your son is getting so much out of. But you won’t be back here anyway?? Strange. . . Nance |
 Comment by COD September 17th, 2007 at 10:08 am |
Hey Daryl, your blog is not worth my valuable time, however I’d like you to spend some of your far less valuable time to email me privately and tell me exactly what I should do about next year spellings bee. Thanks |
 Comment by Maryalice September 17th, 2007 at 12:10 pm |
Geography Bee – $60 per group of 6 or more Seems to me that the Spelling Bee is just catching up to the where other tests/competitions have been for years. But I may be missing something since we have never done the spelling bee. My kids never inherited a spelling gene. |
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Comment by COD September 17th, 2007 at 1:25 pm |
The spelling bee is run by a foundation that is backed by a profitable corporation. I’ll bet their math on losing “hundreds of thousands” of dollars assign a value of zero on the PR benefit from being the sponsor of the premier national spelling bee. |
 Comment by sam September 18th, 2007 at 2:37 am |
I’m sorry, but I’m not the least impressed by kids who can spell obscure and/or obsolete words. It’s not fun to me to watch stressed out children wracking every corner of the minds for some clue as to whether whogivesashit has a Z or not. |
 Comment by RedMolly September 18th, 2007 at 8:58 pm |
Hey, isn’t this a quote from Gen. Petraeus’ testimony last week? And, speaking of exquisitely nerdy competitions, did anyone see the National Vocabulary Bee televised a couple of weeks ago? I thought I TiVoed it, but apparently I pushed an incorrect button somewhere. |