The answer to the question the headline poses, inferring from people sampled in the article is: "They mostly end up in a English related academic position in school or college setting"
There was a Doctor, a Bio-statistician, an attorney, and a radio reporter. There were 2 English related academics in the article (and one professor of Classics with a Ph.D. in Ancient Philosophy), so that's definitely overrepresented, but it was more diverse than I would have expected.
It's unfortunate the article headline is the question but there is no real conclusion drawn in the article. It's just bunch of interviews with past winners. It's apparent that Bee winners have unsurprisingly great memory capacity, ability to fast search their memory and build much finer predictor model of data they consume. So they excel at professions that requires these attributes which are pretty much all science/tech/literature/law professions.
I thought you were kidding and then I read their bio. What an interesting choice for a startup shaving company. I'm surprised Unilever hasn't axed it by now after they made the acquisition.
As you can see from the winning words 30–50+ years ago, the Bee used to be a vocabulary contest among average people. Today it’s a test of who can commit to memorizing essentially the entire dictionary. You’re going to see a lot more high-performing doctors, lawyers, etc. in the future compared to older winners.
> Today it’s a test of who can commit to memorizing essentially the entire dictionary. You’re going to see a lot more high-performing doctors, lawyers, etc. in the future compared to older winners.
Why would the latter follow the former? What does memorizing the words in an entire dictionary (not even the meanings, just the spelling of the words themselves) have to do with being a high-performing doctor, lawyer, etc.?
It may well be that the hyper-focus on rote memorization that the bee is known for now will lead to reduced outcomes. Rote memorization just isn't that important of a skill in modern society.
They are memorizing (most of) the meanings as well as the roots, patterns in the languages of origins, etc. Why else do you think they always ask the pronouncer for the definition?
Commitment to a years-long slog of seemingly endless and pointless repetition and stressful competition? If that doesn’t scream doctor/lawyer I don’t know what does.
I don't think they would start allowing the use of professional jargon as spelling words, such as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. But I may be mistaken.
That word would be of no challenge to the current top spellers. There was an 8-way tie for victory this year because the best kids are all but unstumpable. You are vastly underestimating the level of preparation that goes into competing to win the Bee.
For that and other obvious reasons, Scripps is unlikely to open the word list to include any and all nonsensical jargon.
What would you consider nonsensical jargon? Jargon is jargon because it makes sense to those in that particular profession (medicine in this instance) but not to those outside it. Jargon that doesn't make sense to those who are using it is just fiddle-faddle.