The thrill of spelling

Usually it's the big kids who get all the glory at spelling bees. Grades 1 through 3 are junior varsity at best. I mean, who cares if you can spell "rat"?

But the second-graders at Central Agency's bee put on a heck of a show, going 28 rounds and forcing the pronouncer to pull out the fourth-grade word list after he exhausted the second-grade and third-grade supply.

Mark Aruguete of Canyon de Chelly Elementary won the second-grade crown to uphold the family legacy.

Older brother Joseph was the Navajo Nation winner three years ago, and sister Esther, who is competing at the junior high level today, grabbed last year's seventh-grade title and lasted into the later rounds of the Navajo Nation bee (scheduled for March 11 in Tuba City this year).

The first- and third-graders also ran a respectable contest, with both winners - Tabitha Begay of Piñon and Emily Staley of Canyon de Chelly - spelling past their grade level.

For much of the contest, Aruguete found himself up against a formidable trio of females, going round for round with Cameron Fuller, Dana Begay and Audrey Francis until Francis became the victim of her own nerves in Round 16, accidentally transposing the "u" and "n" in "unite."

She immediately corrected her mistake, but in spelling as in much of life, there are no second chances.

Begay, of Piñon Elementary, went out on "wedge" in the next round, leaving Aruguete and Mesa View's Fuller to duke it out for 11 more rounds.

Their tongues skipped handily across "zealous," "zodiac" and "zipper," the last three words of the third-grade list.

Unfortunately forgetting that the word lists are arranged in alphabetical order, Fuller spelled her first fourth-grade word, "abide," with an "o" instead of an "a."

That left Aruguete to correctly spell "acme" (which means, appropriately enough, "the point at which someone or something is best, perfect or most successful").

Even in the first-grade division, where it's usually immediately apparent who the best spellers are, seven of the original 20 kids were still in by Round 6, and by the middle of Round 7, the pronouncer was pulling out the second-grade words.

This tripped up four of the children, who hadn't studied far enough ahead.

Tabitha Begay correctly spelled "evoke" to win the division after Natasha Nutlouis of Jeehdeez'a Academy misspelled "droopy."

Their two nearest competitors then went three more rounds to decide the alternate title, with Sonny Shorty of Chinle Elementary prevailing after his nemesis went out on "gear."

The third-grade contest was more defined, with contestants dropping like flies on words like "easel," "vague" and "asterisk."

Staley and Utohna Francis of Piñon went mano a mano for six rounds until Francis was the unfortunate recipient of "echt" (a word of Germanic origin meaning "authentic or typical").

She left out the "h," probably not having had much exposure to German in the middle of the rez, leaving Staley to correctly spell "eponym," another obscure one.

The four competitors who had dropped out in the round before Staley's and Francis' pitched battle then brawled for third, with Ernessa Benally of Lukachukai eventually prevailing on "gristle," a word any Navajo who has eaten mutton should know.

Aruguete credited his win to his father's incessant grilling, and the other winners agreed practice was the key. But Chinle Elementary teacher Deidra Mendenhall, a veteran of 29 spelling bees, had a different idea.

"What I'm seeing is nerves," Mendenhall said. "The kids know the list. They get up there in front of all these people they don't know, and they freeze."

Mendenhall said her strategy for next year would be to drill her students in front of an audience.

"These days, schools don't even have stages," she said. "We're concentrating so hard on reading and math that the little songs and plays we used to have them do have fallen by the wayside. Children don't know how to speak in front of people any more."

Hmm. Food for thought. If they're really serious, perhaps they should learn a song in German.

The fourth- through eighth-graders will spell today starting at 9 a.m. in the Chinle Community Center, promising yet more spellbinding action. The event is open to the public as long as you are quiet.

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