If you need your faith in young people restored, go to a spelling bee.

Monroe County’s bee was last night, and I had the honor of pronouncing the words for the spellers. It truly was a rewarding experience - sharing the room with so many bright, good-looking and well-mannered young people.

Some were intense. Some were a kind of studied casual. Some seemed to be mostly curious. A few tried to pretend they were bored.

But as a group, it was an impressive show. They spelled some tough words, they were tripped up by some tricky words, and all 39 students showed a high level of class, whether they won or lost. Their parents should be very proud.

I can only remember one giving me a dirty look as he walked off the stage - as if it was my fault he misspelled the word.

This year’s list seemed to be heavy on short, tricky words, instead of long, complicated ones. Words like “trawl,” ”stoic,” and “sphinx.” “Isthmus” took out a couple of the final 10 students.

One longer word, “rhinoceros,” was the only word that none of the finalists could spell.

For a lover of words - after all, I’ve made my living with them for three-plus decades - it was a real treat.

We hear a lot about the failures of our schools, and that we’re raising a generation of kids who only know how to play video games.

But this group was quiet testimony that schools and parents are doing just fine with today’s young people.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 6:57 am and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.