Sting of the Spelling Bee

This short film featured a set of bright, young, and enthusiastic students all working toward a common goal: winning the National Spelling Bee.  Except this goal can only be won by a single student.  I find this kind of structure in a school-based institution puzzling.  As the frazzled contestants prove their worth through round after round of reciting memorized spellings, they start to drop off like flies and are escorted, kindly but forcefully, off the stage.  I don’t know what kind of sadist first thought that this kind of treatment of adolescents would be beneficial to their developing minds and emotions, but one can plainly see from the video the overwhelming stress that these kids are undergoing.  I tried to imagine what would ensue if normal classroom procedure was designed in this manner.  The instructor hands out exams to the class, but only the kid who scores the highest will pass, and all others are left to face their friends and families in their shame.  Of course, no one is forcing any of these children to participate in this competition (with the exception to possibly overbearing parents), and in fact, the children spotlighted in the film are giddy with excitement at the thought of competing.  I just think that perhaps the Spelling Bee would benefit from a slight evolution of procedure in order to update it in line with what we now know about learning and child psychology.