The spectacle of a 14-year-old winning the US spelling bee has provoked the usual handwringing and self-congratulation. The British education model, we are told, deserves the credit. But let us pause before we drape ourselves in the Union Jack.
What does this victory truly signify? A single triumph in a contest of rote memorisation hardly vindicates an entire system. The real story is the intellectual decay that this event masks.
We celebrate a child who can spell 'phthisis' but ignore the millions who cannot write a coherent sentence. The spelling bee is a circus, a distraction from the rot at the core of modern education. Our Victorian forebears would be appalled by the soft bigotry of low expectations that now governs our classrooms.
The golden age of grammar and rhetoric is long dead, replaced by a culture of entitlement and ignorance. So cheer for the champion if you must, but do not mistake a spelling bee for the salvation of our civilisation.
