27
May
A question that I perennially encounter when I tell people that I am a professional spelling bee tutor is: “Why bother with spelling bees when we have spell check?” It’s an eminently understandable response, especially when it comes from people who have never watched a bee. Cell phones and computers have no problem storing the entire corpus of the English dictionary and consulting it at a moment’s notice. Like all games and sports, spelling bees aren’t strictly speaking necessary or useful – at least not in an immediately practical way. Yet questions about spelling bees’ utility (or lack thereof) miss…