The Bee Buzz

Just as the early 1870s saw a peak in Bee popularity when The Hoosier Schoolmaster was published, so too did we in the early 21st century. Within a period of just a few years, there has been an upsurge of Bee-related activity in American culture, beginning perhaps with the 2000 documentary Spellbound, a film which follows ten top spellers from around the country as they prepare for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The same year, the novel Bee Season—about a young spelling prodigy and her troubled family—was published, and subsequently turned into a film in 2005. Around the same time, another film—Akeelah and the Bee—was released in theatres. And in print, several fiction and non-fiction books were published. Perhaps related to this increase in activity was the beginning of Bee public broadcast; in 1994, ESPN began broadcasting the Scripps National Spelling Bee. And in 2006, ABC booted the Miss America pageant, yet still broadcast the final rounds of the Bee. The Internet has also been home to Bee activity in the early 21st century—students have begun studying and quizzing each other over the Web.

But at the same time, there has been a steady decrease of language faculties in American culture—we no longer use the kinds of words that we did even 50 years ago, and the complexity in thought that produces such language is dissipating.

Questions to Consider

What, then, is the cause for this swell of activity around spelling competitions?

The following are some questions to consider and reflect upon:

1. What are some possible reasons for the upsurge in Bee activity in 21st century America?
2. How has the print medium affected the way the general public has engaged with the Scripps National Spelling Bee? And the medium of multimedia?
3. Which others aspects of American culture has multimedia had a direct effect on?
4. Of books, film, television, theater and the Internet, which might have the most influential affect on our interest in and engagement with spelling bees? Why?
5. Is the Scripps National Spelling Bee a form of reality television? If so, how does that change or shape our interest in the Bee?