“When our research led us to her story, we couldn’t believe it was so little known and so little celebrated,” said Malcolm Massey, a language expert at the company. , said in a statement. Bolden’s statements at the time gave clues to her method, he added: “Her parents and friends helped her memorize words and she read a newspaper every day to perfect his spelling. That’s the blueprint for today’s spelling champions.”
Miss Bolden isn’t a champion — she’s last on her team and could be replaced when schools across the country hold spelling competitions and compete for a spot in the national championship, the tournament attracted eighth grade teams from 34 cities, 510 children in all, according to Cleveland.com.
The four teams in the final came from Cleveland, Erie, New Orleans and Pittsburgh. Team New Orleans, upon learning Miss Bolden was participating, threatened to withdraw from the competition.
Warren Hicks, event organizer and Cleveland’s assistant superintendent of schools, argued that Miss Bolden deserved to enter the contest. “This historic event was planned to promote better spelling instruction in schools, but it resulted in more than that,” he later said. “It proves once again that in our schools, all boys and girls have equal and equal opportunities.”
To compete, students first take a 100-word written spelling test. They then spelled 400 words out loud on stage at Cleveland’s Hippodrome Theater, a lavish theater that opened the previous year.
Among the words Miss Bolden spelled correctly were prejudice, persistence, misspelling and shame. She got a perfect score.
But her victory has caused animosity among politicians and educators, some of whom refuse to accept the results.
