Rules change eliminates Home Schooled Bee champion

[GT]

A change in the rules of the state spelling be will not allow last years state champion to compete. The rule change seems to have been poorly advertised.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=52074

"Last year's state champ in the National Geographic Bee won't be able to compete in this year's contest due to a little-publicized rules change, his parents said. "

"Matt Savage, a home-schooled seventh-grader from Francestown, had already won a school-level Bee at Great Brook School in Antrim. But after his win, officials with the Bee called and told parents Larry and Diane Savage that he couldn't go on to the state contest because of rules governing how home-schoolers can enter the event."

"The end result was that Matt won the local Bee, but couldn't take part in the state contest, which is scheduled to be held in Keene on April 1. As the dates for organizing a contest through a home-school association have passed, that means he's out of luck. "

[Rodinia]

Geez Louise, this is disturbing and frustrating.

I sent the following email to the NGB this morning....

Greetings,

I?m a resident of the state of New Hampshire. I?ve become aware of a story involving the National Geographic Bee and the Savage family from Antrim NH.
This is the link to the article in the Union Leader newspaper. http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=52074

I read through the FAQ?s and saw that there is a minimum of 6 entrants for homeschool associations. I?m wondering about the answer to question 5.

5) What if there are not six eligible students in the school or homeschool association?

We are sorry but that is the minimum requirement for the school-level competition.

I?m wondering if an explanation rather than an apology could be offered as an answer to this question.

Many, many people are homeschooling their children who don?t belong to an association who are still required to pay their taxes toward funding public education. Should this vast group of people be penalized for not belonging to an association while providing an excellent education to their children?
I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Hudson

Gonic, NH

[AlanM]

Looks to me like they were getting nervous about having home-schoolers beating public-schoolers and decided to change the rules to make it more difficult for home-schoolers. Par for the course. If you can't beat them on an even field, adjust the field till it suits your purpose.

[KBCraig]

Looks to me like they were getting nervous about having home-schoolers beating public-schoolers and decided to change the rules to make it more difficult for home-schoolers. Par for the course. If you can't beat them on an even field, adjust the field till it suits your purpose.

The rule change forces home-schoolers into their own "bracket", so to speak, so that government schoolers can at least make it through the first round. By forcing HSers to compete against each other in the first round, more of them are eliminated from moving higher in the contest.

Kevin

[Dave Ridley]

OK so should we schedule a protest for the April 1 spelling bee in Keene?

What are the details on that...where and when and what not.

media will already be there covering it so we should have better shot at coverage than usual.  there is still time to write lte's although i cant i'm maxed out at the sentinel this month

[Kat Kanning]

I put it on the calendar.

[Dave Ridley]

LTE's announcing the protest would be helpful but they will need to go out by the 24th or so.  and i'm maxed out at the sentinel

[GT]

There was another board calling for an all out boycott of National Geographic. The person calling for the boycott claims NG bans ALLan ALL homeschoolers . In fairness NG restricts, but does not ban homeshoolers. LTE's that claim NG is excluding all homeschoolers may be less credible.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geographybee/faq.html#2
"Bee registration is open to schools and homeschool associations with
students in grades four through eight who are not over the age of 15
by the time of the national level. A student must be enrolled in a
school or homeschool association that is registered with the Bee.
Also, students of the eligible grade levels must be following a
school schedule and academic course load comparable to the majority
of the student's grade-mates and age-mates. A student may not be
enrolled in more than two academic courses at the high school and/or
college level during each school year of the competition. We reserve
the right to disqualify a student if we believe the rules have not
been followed."

[jgmaynard]

Where is it? What time?

JM

[Kat Kanning]

Keene to host geography bee

Question: Name the hub of southwestern New Hampshire and the location of this year?s state geography bee.

Answer: Keene.

On Friday, Keene State College will host 100 4th- through 8th-graders from across the state for the annual N.H. State Geographic Bee.

The finalists had to win a school-level competition and have one of the 100 best scores on a written test administered by the National Geographic Society to make it to Keene.

National Geographic hosts the annual bee as a way to encourage the teaching and study of geography.

The winner of the state bee will get $100 and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the National Geographic Bee in May.

The final round of the Keene bee, which is open to the public, starts at 3 p.m. in the Brown Room of the Young Student Center.