Neetu Chandak, 14 year old Seneca Falls student was recently eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee when she spelled the word paravane incorrectly (incorrectly spelled p-e-r-o-v-a-n-e, for those of you keeping score at home). Incorrect, very sorry, good job, try again next year, end of story... right? Not exactly.
Mom stepped in and protested that her daughter was "mislead" when the judges told her that the word was of Greek origin. O.K., I suppose I understand since the Merriam-Webster dictionary has the etymology of the word placed in French and English origins, but one could argue that if she knew how to spell the word properly to begin with, the judge's actions would not be an issue. Does the average 14 year old even know how to spell this word let alone know if it is Greek, French or Swahili in origin?
I want to give the competitor the benefit of the doubt but this strikes me as a manifestation of society of coddling, entitlement and general protection from failure that some children are raised under. It's not just children doing this though. How many baseball fans this week bitched and moaned because Bud Selig would not (at the time of this post) overturn a botched call that would have given Detroit Tigers pitcher a perfect game?
Also buried in this article is this line:
"The audience gasped, shoulders slumped, and speller after speller was escorted offstage to the comfort room as the 48 semifinalists were whittled down..."
Comfort room?
I've played my share of competitive sports (mainly baseball for 9 years, didn't really get into the competitive spelling scene). I was on teams that had losing seasons (losing every single game) and winning seasons (winning every single game). There was no "comfort room" to retreat to when you lost. You just learned how to shake it off, dust your self off, learn from mistakes made and try harder again next game. Loosing was tough, but it made the winning moments so much more coveted and appreciated.
What are these kids going to do when they get into the real world where there is no "comfort room" to retreat to when bad things happen? There's no comfort room for when you lose your job or your business fails. There's no comfort room to retreat to when you are a surgeon who loses a patient on the operating table due to a mistake. And no amount of protesting from mommy is going to fix life's inevitable bumps and failures. You just need to learn from it and figure out how to move forward.
Maybe I am being too harsh, but perhaps learning from failure is a passing concept.
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