WASHINGTON, DC – In what has been described as “an unprecedented improvement on last year”, a group of Louisiana students emerged from the National Spelling Bee with their annually-received ‘At Least You Tried’ certificates.
Six students from schools across Louisiana were in Washington D.C. last night to represent the state, and in a remarkable improvement from last year, two of them were able to spell their names correctly on the sign-in sheet.
John White, Louisiana’s State Superintendent of Education, says that the progress made is clear to see.
“It’s great to see that our kids are making great strides in being able to spell their own names”, he said, “Of course we have a little ways to go in terms of being able to be a competitive force in the actual competition itself, but we’ll take it a day at a time. The important thing is that two of our students made it past the sign-in sheet table. And it was great that they all received their certificates, which will take pride of place in the Louisiana Historical Archive Museum. We’re very proud of them all.”
The two students who were able to sign-in were, unfortunately, eliminated in the first round after being unable to spell the words “at” and “he” respectively.