HSLDA | Home schoolers are making their mark--Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee is case in point

HSLDA Media Release	May 28, 1998

Home schoolers are making their mark
Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee is case in point

For immediate release
May 28, 1998

Contact: Rich Jefferson
(540) 338-8663 or media@hslda.org

WASHINGTON—What’s amazing about the home school movement is that seemingly average parent-educators continue to turn out high-performing students. Home school students comprise only three percent of the total school-age population, but they frequently achieve at an unusually high level. The national spelling bee, May 27-28, provides instances of this, as do other national student contests.

For example:

In this year’s Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, 19 of the 247 contestants are home school students. That figure has not yet been officially released by Scripps Howard as a record for home school participation, but a record was set in last year’s bee when 17 of the 245 national contestants were home schoolers. A spokesman for the bee said that when the first tier of the bee is held in the nation’s schools, perhaps as many as 10 million students participate. Spelling your way to the national bee is no small achievement for contestants ages 11-15.

Last year’s spelling bee champion was home schooler Rebecca Sealfon of Brooklyn, New York. Sealfon was the first home schooler to win the annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Sealfon said: “Home schooling gave me more time and flexibility to study spelling.” Click here for a summary of the Sealfon story.

Chris Mayernik, a 12-year-old home school student from Fairfax, Virginia, won the 1998 Lego Deep Sea Challenge build-a-thon in April. Qualifying rounds for this contest were held across the country.

Two home schoolers finished in the top 10 for the 1998 National Geography Bee, sponsored by the National Geographic Society and Sylvan Learning Centers. J.B. Kizer, of Ohio, who won second place in the National Geography Bee, also competed in this year’s Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. You may have seen J.B. Kizer on NBC’s Today show on May 21, the day after the Geography Bee.

Michael Farris, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, a non-profit advocacy group, said “Home school students tend to be disproportionately represented in national contests where academic skills are being tested. The reason is simple: home school parents emphasize traditional learning rather than feel-good self-esteem methods that leave children puffed up but devoid of the knowledge that they need to sustain themselves in real life.”

For more information about the home schoolers in this year’s spelling bee, see Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee web site at www.spellingbee.com or call Media Relations Office at the Home School Legal Defense Association at (540) 338-8663. For more information on home schooling, see www.hslda.org. Or call HSLDA at (540) 338-5600.