Top Local Speller Dots I's, Crosses T's As Bee Looms

By GIL KLEIN Media General News Service

Published: May 29, 2007

WASHINGTON - Justin Murdock doesn't just love spelling. He's consumed by it.

When he takes the stage here at the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday as winner of The Tampa Tribune's regional competition, the 12-year-old seventh-grader will be carrying the tattered book of words he has been studying for hours every day.

As one of the 36 home-schooled contestants out of the 286 students vying in the national championship, Justinwakes up early every morning to complete his regular studies quickly so he can get to spelling.

"Sometimes I catch myself making up words using what I know about prefixes and suffixes," he said. "Then I look them up in the dictionary to see if they are real words."

Justin has had a handicap preparing for the national competition. After he won the Tribune's bee in this winter, his family moved from Wesley Chapel in Pasco County to Conway, Ark., outside Little Rock.

"If I had to do it again, I wouldn't move in the middle of studying for a national spelling bee," said Justin's mother, Lisa, who stayed behind to sell the house after her husband, David, moved to Arkansas for a job promotion. "I must have lost my mind. We were in such desperation to be with my husband and be a family again."

Home-schoolers seem to have an advantage in the world of competitive spelling. Only 3 percent of all students are home-schooled, but they typically make up 10 percent to 15 percent of contestants who have made it to the national bee in recent years. And they love to win.

"Within the culture of home-schoolers, the spelling bee is seen as a hallowed event that you don't make fun of," said James Maguire, author of "American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds."

Every year, about 30 or 40 contestants are hypercompetitive - they honestly love studying spelling - and many of them are home-schoolers, he said.

Home-schoolers captured first, second and third place in 2000 and won in 2001. They've placed in the top 10 every year since. And this year, a favorite to win is Samir Patel, 13, who is home-schooled in Colleyville, Texas.

"We know that people who home school are interested in the old-fashioned basics, so they probably do emphasize spelling," said Brian Ray of the National Home School Research Institute.

Spelling bees also are a way for home-schoolers to prove publicly their ability against students from traditional public and private schools, said Andrew Coulson, education researcher at the Cato Institute.

"In a competitive situation like a spelling bee, kids can measure their skills, and it gives them some sort of concrete feeling of accomplishment," Coulson said.

Home school support groups often hold spelling bees, and Justin competed in his first one in sixth grade. It happened to coincide with the same day he was scheduled to give his first speech, his mother said. He decided to do both.

"He was nervous about giving the speech, but he wasn't nervous about the bee," she said. "He and a friend were the two finalists, and they kept going and going. Justin won, and he got the bug. He knew right then he would be back next year."

After he won the regional competition, Justin cranked up his spelling studies, his mother said.

"He sets his own goal on what he wants to accomplish that day," she said. "And unless his parents tell him otherwise, he doesn't stop until he gets it done or goes cross-eyed."

National Spelling Bee organizers will not let anyone compete who is not going to school full time. That gives home-schoolers an advantage. They have the flexibility of scheduling their studies and to concentrate on a student's strengths.

"It's almost like you have more hours in the day because you don't have to sit and wait while the teacher calls role, wait in line in the cafeteria," Lisa Murdock said. "If he has a question, he doesn't have to wait for six other students to ask their questions. If we're waiting, it's usually in the car where he can study."

At the regional spelling bee in Tampa, Justin won by spelling the word "recidivist." He was excited to get his prize, Merriam Webster's Third International Dictionary. But he knows that the competition will be much stiffer - and the words much harder - at the national competition.

"It's mainly chance," he said. "You could be a horrible speller and move to the next round if you got the right word. Or you could lose in the first round if you got a word you didn't know."

That's what keeps him studying. As his mother tells him, "The next word you read may be the one you're asked."