Why Are Indians So Fascinated With Spelling Bee Contests?

A 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani became the 14th consecutive Indian-American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee yesterday. The first and second runner-ups for this year are also children of Indian origin. However, the dominance of Indian-American children in spelling bee championships does not surprise anyone anymore. It has become a yearly drill for them to perform well in competitions which are centered around memorising.

But why are Indians so obsessed with the spelling bee? Why is it that of all the things, parents choose to guide their kids to excel in spelling bees or memory games? We do not have to look beyond the education system in our country for an answer.

While these families may have settled abroad, they have taken with them, the Indian affection for rote learning and the desire to come out on top in it.

Excellence in rote learning is the national obsession of Indian parents and children. Our education system doesn’t encourage children to learn or acquire knowledge. In India, education is all about memorising equations, facts, grammar, formulas and even spellings. The key to success in this system is to stop asking questions and start cramming. Over the course of decades, we have grown accustomed to love this format. Our social, educational and professional infrastructure hinges on it. Be it getting admission in an ace college or a decent job, everything is based on rote learning.

Add to that the compulsion to attain the highest honour possible in any form of exams centered around this system. From board and competitive exams to spelling bee championships for that matter, Indian kids are almost strong armed into working hard to achieve success. It is this drive to work hard and memorise harder which makes the Indian-American children so good at spelling bees.

The quintessential Indian competitiveness, which is almost a cultural thing, also plays a big part here.

The tendency of Indian parents to compare their kids to those of other’s is probably also a driving force behind this spelling bee fascination.

It is to not downplay Nemmani’s achievement, or those of others like him. The hard work and dedication it took to achieve this success is supreme. But I do have a couple of questions for the parents who are encouraging or even pushing their children to excel in such competitions. What is their incentive to motivate their children to excel in rote learning. Why do they not desire all-round development and great performance in sports just like they do in academics? Do they even care about how their push for academic excellence affects their children? Or their future for that matter?

Most Indian parents will not understand the relevance of these questions and their answers. Perhaps their children need to spell it out to them.

Picture credit: digitallearning.eletsonline.com

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Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section.  The views expressed are the author’s own.