This year, 562 spellers competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and after a grueling 20 rounds, the eight remaining contestants were named co-champions.
A culture that breeds spelling greatness
South Asian-Americans have come out on top each of the past 12 years.
In 2015, Shalini Shankar, a professor of anthropology and Asian-American studies at Northwestern University, told CNN that spelling bees can be a prestige activity for Indian-American parents. Many immigrants from South Asia are well-educated, success-driven professionals and they want their kids to be that way too.
« Parents invest a lot of their time with their kids, » she said. « They prioritize education and have the economic means to have a parent stay at home. It’s much more a socio-economic factor than a gene. »
That same year, writer Gurnek Bains argued that one reason for South Asians’ dominance in spelling bees was steeped in history. Over millennia, Indian culture developed « 15 elaborate mnemonic devices, » aiding in a near-perfect oral transmission of India’s sacred Vedic texts like the « Mahabharat.
