The words Phthartolatrae, Chelicerata, and jatrorrhiza originated in different countries, but they share something in common.
Most adults wouldn’t recall ever using them in a sentence, let alone writing them or noticing them in a book or news article.
And yet, they’re in school dictionaries; children as young as 9 are asked to define them or spell them correctly.
It’s a proud American tradition dating back to 1925.
This week, 247 elementary and middle school children and their families arrived in Washington to compete in the 101st Scripps National Spelling Bee.
They emerged from an initial pool of hundreds of thousands of children who competed in local events; 25,000 moved on to regional competitions to vie for a slot in the nation’s capital….