Only twice has a New Mexican ever won the Scripps National Spelling Bee…
And both times the victory ended up going to Texas.
A lot of New Mexico’s best spellers only get a shot at making the national spelling bee by crossing state lines and competing in a Texas competition.
New Mexico ranking second to last nationally in both reading and writing the trend might spell out a bigger problem for the state education.
This is the final round at the 2014 Scripps regional spelling bee qualifier in El Paso Texas… A decisive moment for 6th grade contestant Melody Hardwood.
Last year Melody won and went on to represent Texas in the national spelling bee competition, even though she’s from Silver City, New Mexico.
And she’s not alone. For the last three years New Mexicans have won the El Paso Texas Scripps spelling bee qualifier.
Olivia Weinbaum was the winner in 2013, she is a sophomore at Centennial High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Olivia went on to compete in the national spelling bee in Washington, DC.
“All my friends were super excited and people I didn’t even talk to, they were super excited because they went to the same school as I did. A few of my teachers recorded it and sent it to me. But they were also really confused as to why my name tag said El Paso instead of Las Cruces.” says Olivia Weinbaum.
Why are Southern New Mexico’s best spellers representing Texas? Because New Mexico only sends one student to the national competition every year and the qualifier competition for it is held in Albuquerque. So students in southern New Mexico have to cross into Texas to compete.
“Mississippi they only had one contestant as well and then the super smart states they had more than 10 contestants or 15” Olivia Weinbaum says “Massachusetts and New York had 19, Ohio had like 13 and then there was sad little NM with only one.”
This year West Virginia sent 4 contestants, Idaho sent 3, and Maine 2. These are all states with smaller populations than New Mexico.
http://youtu.be/j5R1HPTXY_c
Olivia’s mother Lisa Weinbaum teaches history at Lynn Middle School in Las Cruces. She points to a 2014 National Center for Education Statistics study that ranked New Mexico students second to last nationally in writing. A report from the Annie E Casey Foundation gave New Mexico students the same ranking in reading proficiency.
“The spelling bee is just a symbol, of in our case unfortunately a lack of priorities.” Lisa Weinbaum says.
Lisa Weinbaum runs the spelling bee club at Lynn Middle School. She says spelling bees can raise academic standard. But the real value is the effect it has on students and not just the high academic achievers.
“They see themselves as an intellectual; I am participating in this intellectual endeavor and therefore it translates into their grades. It translates into their study habits, it translates into their work ethic. Both directly in the classroom but also in indirect ways, I mean I have kids that are already starting to study for next school year for the spelling bee”. Lisa Weinbaum says.
There are school and city spelling bees in southern New Mexico, but Weinbaum has been pushing for a Scripps spelling bee in Las Cruces that could give students a shot at qualifying for the national spelling bee.
The Las Cruces Public School Foundation announced they would start a Scripps event this past school year, but it didn’t happen. KRWG arranged an interview with Executive director Nyeta Haines to find out why but Haines cancelled and declined to reschedule. In a statement Haines cited organization complexities, but said “The LCPS Foundation is still interested in the possibility of co-sponsoring this event”.
Weinbaum is concerned it is never going to happen and academic achievement will continue to be overlooked. And that could result in a repeat of 1962 and 1983, the years New Mexicans won the national spelling bee while representing Texas.
“In the 80's he won the national spelling bee, from Alamogordo he won the whole shebang, Blake Giddens is his name. if you go to Wikipedia it says El Paso Times and there is a little asterisk and it says in real little itty bitty letters; Alamogordo New Mexico. So New Mexico gets a footnote. Yay for footnotes.” Lisa Weinbaum says.
After placing 43rd in the 2013 national competition Olivia Weinbaum came home with a year’s supply of ice cream and a mailbox full of college offers. Haines says the LCPS foundation is working towards sponsoring an official Scripps spelling bee in Southern New Mexico next school year.
Which could also benefit neighboring Texans; With fewer New Mexicans participating in their competition, El Paso students might have a fighting chance next year.
