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Jacquelyn Martin / AP file
Lori Anne Madison, 6, of Lake Ridge, Va., walks through river water while playing with friends in a park in McLean, Va., on May 11.
Lori Anne Madison may be only 6 years old, but she's got a big talent: She's among the best spellers in the nation.
On Wednesday, the home-schooled girl from Lake Ridge, Va., who loves swimming, math and the outdoors, will compete with 277 other contestants -- many twice her age and size -- at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
“It’s been a busy day for everyone and I know her parents want her to get some rest and to be ready for the competition,” Ria Schalnat, spokeswoman for the bee, told msnbc.com on Tuesday.
Schalnat said Lori Anne's parents have refused interviews until Thursday, “and that is dependent on whether she qualifies for the semifinals.”
The annual spelling bee continues through Thursday. Preliminary competition starts at 8 a.m. ET Wednesday. The championship finals, slated for 8 p.m. ET Thursday, will be aired live on ESPN.
Lori Anne started making waves in March when she correctly spelled “vaquero” to win her regional bee in northern Virginia, according to the Washington Post.
"It was shocking," The Associated Press quoted Sorina Madison as saying. "I didn't expect all the media attention. We're private people. We're regular people. It was intimidating. But I'm happy for her. She loves it and she does it because it's a passion, and we never push her into anything and want her to make her own choices."
Take the test: Could you keep up with these kids?
Lori Anne says she wants to be an astrobiologist.
Why? She told the AP: "I'm going to sort of find life forms. And, plus, alien planets are new."
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Leave a Comment:
WOW..I'm 50 years older then her..and can't speel for chit!
Yes speel.
Who in his/her right mind cares about some spelling bee. Jeez.
Well considering the prizes that can be won, it is fun to watch. ;)
http://www.spellingbee.com/prizes
n;sldl, are you serious? I have a buddy that moved here about eight years ago from Germany. English is his sixth language and he has better grammar and spelling skills in English than most Americans. That's embarrassing.
the trolls are out....hahahahahahahahaha...
All the best Lori!
Oh oh. HOME SCHOOLED. This turn of events WILL NOT go over very well with the teacher's unions !
Way to go Lori Ann!!!
no blonde jokes for her! way to go Lori Anne!
Awsome job little one! But don't grow up too fast! Stay a kid for as long as possible.
Mum must be doing a great job at home schooling for Lori Ann, Go get them kid and have fun.
Light years ahead of most high school grads!
Great job.
it's interesting how the ONE LINK, *NOT* working is "Teen wins right to wear 'Jesus Is Not a Homophobe' T-shirt to school"
yeah mine hasn't loaded either.
Woo hoo! And I can't even spell "Vacuro" myself!
Wait, did I spell that right? Must look......
GO LITTLE ONE!:)
Vaquero, my bad :)
Congrats Lori, Great Job and Good Luck!!
Good thing she is home schooled, otherwise she probably would be misspelling her own name. Isn't wonderful how home schooled and private schooled children reach learning plateaus far before those in the dumbed down government schools do. Why they even learn about the constitution and how our government is supposed to work. AMAZING!
@Paul-2539759, yeah, but sometimes being a child, like some people say, not to mention being around other children and learning things that can not be taught in textbooks, such as learning street smarts, real-world experiences, exercise, learning independent thinking, learning morals and/or a code of ethics, having your morals and ethics questioned, challenged, molded, and, for better or worse, changed, as well as doing the same thing to other people, social interactions, friendships, learning how to fall in love for the first time, and preaching the Gospel to the people and saving those people who are lost, are things that are needed for a person to become truly a well-rounded individual. I do not care what those "tiger moms" say, let alone rabid, OCD, super-sheltering and protective-type home-schooling parents and families say, but human interaction is just as much a factor in developing true genius as being in a textbook or being able to exercise with other children or learning street smarts or being in the real world. This is from someone who has been there myself. I was home-schooled and, although I learned far better in home-schooling when it came to textbooks, I was a totally clueless rookie when it came to my interactions with the real world. I liked being around friends more even if my education suffered a bit, namely due to teachers that cared more for their paychecks than for truly teaching the materials that they were supposed to teach (but I'll talk more about that some other time, for it is a subject in and of itself), but if I had to do my education all over again, I'd rather be with the kids than to be by myself because friendships are irreplacable and some things that you truly need to learn in your life are never taught in some dry, old, academic textbook, namely, how to become a true human being with independent thought and a competent mind. Also, I wasn't criticizing ALL home-schooling parents, I was criticizing the ones that think that everything is evil (kind of like that one lady in "The Waterboy"), and that their child/children are way too pious and holy to dare be tainted by the world. It is those kinds of people, not to mention the "tiger moms/dads" that really stick in my craw.
I agree, Truthteller. The home schooling does have it's disadvantages but you survived and appear to have a good stable head on your shoulders. There are youth programs, churches and other community activities where children can learn the social skills without being indocrinated by government schooling. That is area, like you said, for another discussion. Thanks for your comment, Paul.
Good for her!
So funny-she looks almost exactly like my own little one who just-turned-7. Same haircut and everything. She can't spell though LOL.
Perhaps she will help prevent this sort of thing one day. ;)
..and perhaps you can come down off of your methamphetamine/LSD/PCP-type rantings and ramblings and actually make some sense in this topic, Russ-1955468?
Truthteller:
You don't get these (mis)spelling jokes? Poor man.
We get the jokes. We just don't find the giant font/long list to be amusing.
speak for yourself, impatient girl. i found them humorous and entertaining, especially given the subject of the article.
When my 12yo was in first grade, he came home one day and spelled "chrysanthemum" - correctly! - out of the blue (I was a champion spelling bee winner 500 years ago; that's why I knew he spelled it correctly). I asked him if that was one of the spelling words but he said it was from a book they read in school recently. Fast forward to now: I started homeschooling him this past school year out of frustration with the public schools because they were not doing enough for him and other advanced students who are bored and unchallenged. The teachers were unqualified to challenge him, and the school was reluctant to advance him. It took me four years before a teacher finally took action to get him tested so he could skip a grade. Even the principal stated they do not encourage advancement.
Unfortunately, the American educational system is one-size-fits-all. Did you know that approximately 40% of new college students have to take remedial courses? (Google "harvard study remedial courses). What are students doing for 12+ years, seven hours a day (not including homework), if not learning the basics?
From Time magazine: The U.S. spends "$8 billion per year educating the mentally retarded", yet spends a paltry "$800 million on gifted programs". Additionally, "gifted students drop out at the same rates as non-gifted kids - about 5%" (Google "time magazine gifted students"). Yep. Sounds about right. And we wonder why America is not churning out brilliant scientists and inventors like we used to.
You ask what students are doing while at school instead of learning. Why don't you apply to be a substitute teacher for a week, and you will find out. They are ditching class, sending text messages, playing Angry Birds, even throwing items at the teachers. By the way, for you to use the term "retarded" in your post proves you are quite ignorant. If that is a real quote from Time magazine, it must be decades old.
redmoth... who cares if Enduser calls retarted people retarted... or handicapped, or anything else for that matter... Most normal people are not PC anyway.. He/she is telling it like it is. We are not spending enough on gifted kids in this country... because "everyone is the same'... I say screw the people who don't want to work hard.
America is still producing brilliant scientists and inventors. In general, our schools are teaching advanced topics in high school that used to be college level.
Back East @ 13.2
"who cares if Enduser calls retarted people retarted..."
Pot, kettle. Kettle, pot.
@redmoth: You know the quote "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt"? I like to fact-check and research everything before I state an opinion; what's your excuse? Speaking of "retarded" and "ignorant", did you know that a group of words between quotation marks usually indicates that it was quoted from an outside source? If you had taken the time to Google the words I had in parentheses, the very first search results link points to the very article I quoted. The article is only five years old, which still makes it quite relevant to this discussion.
For the record, I have friends who are/have been teachers at all different levels, and the countless hours I have spent as a parent volunteering at the schools in different capacities (I'm currently chairing a reunion committee for an elite academic environmental school my oldest went to last year - just because I believe in what the school stands for) does make me somewhat qualified to have an opinion.
I'm fed up with NCLB, both the public and charter schools' ridiculous claims of academic superstars, incompetent teachers, endless busywork, hours of meaningless homework, whiny parents, constant testing, lack of challenges for gifted students, dumbing down content, prison-like environment, and ceaseless demands on our time, money, and/or supplies for fundraisers, classroom materials, school supplies, teacher gifts, classroom parties, school functions, and hot lunches. That's just naming a few off the top of my head.
As homeschoolers, we learn the same material in a fraction of the time, which frees us up to take additional educational classes, eat healthy meals, go on frequent field trips, join a computer club, play multiple sports, attend boy scouts, volunteer at the local nature center, and go to church, all while having plenty of downtime to play with friends and sit down for a family meal just about every night. I want my kids to have a well-rounded education, and you can't get it by sitting in a classroom all day, waiting for the rare exceptional teacher and the right 75 minutes of actual, active instruction to come along and learn something new. ()
Shut up a-hole.
this girl is bad ass
The big question is: What's does it say about the education system when a 6 yr. old home schooled child is competing with 12 yr. olds?
Nothing. It only says that you can teach some little boy to spell.
What little boy are you talking about? The child in the story is Lori Anne, a little girl.
Wisonsin,
One, or maybe two, of two things:
1. The school system in Virgina sucks
2. This kid is unusually bright
What it does not prove is that homeschooling is better then any other form of schooling. There can be paragons of intelligence in any venue.
This girl is obviously gifted and talented! I agree with End User.. there is not enough in the public schools for gifted and talented programs. A child can receive free remedial help, but to encourage a bright child to keep on learning falls to the parents to fund, create situations, or provide home schooling. We need to walk away from the mentality of "everyone is the same" everyone is average.. some children will struggle academically and some children are gifted. Our educational system has to teach both spectrum, not focus purely on keeping everyone the same/average..
Good Luck Lori, I'm sure we will hear of you again and again. Good luck to the rest of the contestants also.
Go get em kid , good luck !
I hope that you go far in the National Spelling Bee, Lori Anne Madison.
Interesting. A little girl who can spell vaquero and an anonymous student who can't spell fail ("fale") in the news on the same day. You go, girl.
The parents say they never wanna push her and let her make her own choices....like home school? Pretty much narrows a lot of choices down!
A kid like that in public school wouldn't do well probably, as they would still be trying to spell c-a-t. She's well beyond her grade level. Homeschooling offers up many more options for her right now.
Cute picture.
Spelling bee's are obsolete. We have spell checker now.
Unfortunately for some, spell check doesn't highlight apostrophes which shouldn't be there.
Good catch.
The first thing I looked for in the article was whether the kid is home-schooled. Of course she is. I was not surprised. I am shocked, however, that she is only 6. How can a kid in the first grade have had enough reading experience to know how to spell words which I can't even pronounce? The kid is a freak of nature.
Poor kid. Doomed to be forever smarter than me. Way, way smarter than me.
you say that like its a bad thing