Casting spellers

Education | Homeschoolers hope success in the National Spelling Bee changes attitudes | Mark Bergin

Tia Thomas celebrates in round six of the bee

The look on Sameer Mishra's face was priceless. "Numbnut?" he asked to roars of laughter from the audience at last month's Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Millions more throughout the country joined that chorus of chuckles as they tuned in to the event's live broadcast May 30.

"Numnah," the judge repeated, this time offering a definition: "Numnah is a felt or sheepskin pad placed between a horse's back and the saddle to prevent chafing."

"Oh, numnah!" Mishra blurted, a light bulb suddenly flickering to life in his word-saturated brain. "That's a relief."

Mishra promptly spelled the word correctly, one of 14 English obscurities he successfully navigated en route to outlasting 287 other spellers in the 81st annual bee. The 13-year-old eighth-grader proved a crowd favorite throughout the contest, maintaining his jovial lightheartedness through the final word: guerdon.