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.
