I watched it on the news tonight. The poor kid just keeled right over. The after about 5 seconds he popped up and spelled the word right. Amazing.

Obviously very stressful for them. My daughter did a few bees locally when she was still in elementary school and she was very nervous for them. On the one hand I see your point about it being a bit much, on the other hand I'm glad academic pursuits are important to some kids anyway.

Doesn't matter Beth. He might just be a stressed out kid no matter what he undertakes, some people have personalities like that. It's really impossible to tell from the story why he passed out - maybe he's getting the flu, maybe he passes out periodically for other reasons. Or maybe he was just scared to death.

I figure if he wasn't working on doing the spelling bee, he might be out learning the joys of drinking alcohol or doing drugs. And I've seen some parents at baseball games put such pressure on their kids it's unreal. To each his own poison in life I guess. *g*

Oh Lord, Teresa is right about the baseball. Baseball is so stressful down my way. They have team try outs and all, I believe starting at age 9 for baseball. It's really cut throat and they have games so late at night, we have lights on our fields. They say they don't want the games to interfere with school work, but that is just lip service. I haven't let my kids play baseball yet. Soccer is very low key here, low stress. We're a soccer family.

Oh, gee, I didn't mean organized baseball! I meant out in the backyard baseball.
I really hate organized sports for kids. The pressure there is unreal.
I think we schedule our kids to death these days. They only get to be kids once, must they spend every second of childhood in competition? Can't they just hang out with friends riding bikes or playing kickball or reading a book anymore?

Every kid has their own strengths. As nervous as that kid was, he's in his element.

I don't see the Spelling Bee on the same level as the hyperoverbooked world of piano lessons, soccer, birthdays, karate, tutor-for-success-cuz-the-kid's-being-fast-tracked-to-Harvard.

Ah - okay, I immediately thought of baseball like Little League - LOL. But there's no telling, he may have a micromanaged life, or he may have lots of free time to run around when he's not doing his homework. Heck, he may put himself under tremendous stress - I've know a few kids like that, they work and focus so hard on something, they can't stand the thought of not being perfect.