I think anything on TV which celebrates kids using their brains instead of the their fists is just great. Finally we are celebrating kids being smart not pretty or cute or famous. Education has always been the way to success in life. However most of popular culture celebrates stupid pretty people over smart ordinary, ugly or disabled ones. Teaching a child that they are valuable for things that they can control such as their educational achievements rather than things they cannot like their body shape, skin colour or height is much healthier way to go. Education is the great leveler: smart people can succeed in either business or life and smart can be taught to a very great sense. Sure not every kid can end up being Einstein, but almost every child given an encouraging home environment that values books over video games, can achieve to their potential. If I ever came home with a B grade Mum wanted to know why I didn’t get an A : so long as I had tried and down my best then it was good enough that I had got a B but if I had thrown the assessment together at the last minute she’d be mad. She could accept that I wasn’t good at languages as well as science: but I was never allowed to drop the harder subjects such as science or maths or languages for the easy subjects such as social science or outdoor recreation. She always argued that I could do the fun stuff later but getting good at spelling or maths or Spanish or science involves continual study as the subject builds on itself. You cant do maths at college if you drop it at high school.
So come on America and get behind the kids in the Scripps 2008 National Spelling Bee: they deserve your support and admiration much more than most
