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Normal sixth-grader makes his way to the national spelling bee competition
  
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by Audrie Palmer
Midland Reporter-Telegram
The boy sits on the hunter green sofa in his family's living room -- the sofa furthest away from the television set. But Sam isn't worried about what's on the TV right now. Across from him, on the other matching sofa that forms the backbone of the backwards "L-shape" and centerpiece of the room, his parents sit side-by-side.
"Bromeliad," his mom, Stephanie, says. In her lap, rests a Hexco Academy spelling book; across the edges of the pages are Post-its and tabs splitting up the words by the language of origin -- including French, American Indian, Latin, Hawaiian and Afrikaans.
Tonight, the Dowlen family is in the Swedish section.
Sam looks at the ceiling to concentrate. He's anxious and skittish with all the energy that's stored in the body of a 12-year-old boy. He starts to rattle off the letters as his eyes skim the room. He shifts on the couch as his mom congratulates him on correctly spelling the word and reads him another one.
And for Sam, who has loved words -- all words -- since he was a toddler, having to be tested each night isn't as much a chore for him as it is for most boys his age, who would rather be outside shooting hoops or playing Legos in their rooms.
Actually, Sam is that same boy. During the week, he attends basketball practice for his homeschool team, the Midessa Warriors. When he's at home, a small room in the back of the family's doublewide mobile home is his sanctuary. Along the side wall is his twin-sized bed; lining the other three walls is his childhood. And plastered around the room are posters of the latest Legos gadgets and gizmos that he has acquired, a few headliners like "Legos Mars Mission."
The boy, who entertains his family on occasion with his high-pitched impersonation of the Disney character "Stitch," is in love with the age-old toy. As he shows off his bedroom, he plops down on the floor and sits Indian-style to demonstrate some of his favorite pieces.
But out in the living room he's a student, and for now that means he must study an hour every night with his mom and dad, Scott.
After all, he's representing the Midland region this week at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the nation's capital.
Where the term "bee" comes from, no one knows. As far back as the 1800s, American culture has had quilting bees and apple bees and barn-raising bees. Quite possibly it could mean a gathering of some sort. (OK it does. But the mystery is gone once you know it.)
Over the course of a week, an annual gathering, known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee, takes place at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of kids and their parents buzz around the Independence Concourse in droves.
They come from all over -- the United States, American Samoa, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the U.S. Virgin Islands -- before heading to the fifth floor of the hotel for the competition. Some are knocked out after that first round or two, while only a handful spell their way into victory and the final rounds, which are televised live on ESPN and ABC.
Sixteen students are representing the Lone Star State -- 5 percent of the 288 students competing in this year's bee. Sam Dowlen is number 255.
The first spelling bee was started in 1925 by the Louisville Courier-Journal with nine students. Since then, it's been presented every year, except for 1943-1945 when World War II brought the contest to a halt, and the number of competitors has continued to grow. This year, the 135 boys and 153 girls competing is the largest number so far to enter in the contest.
The official Bee Week kicks off today and runs until Friday night. Up until Tuesday evening, the competitors can take their first round of words at a computer lab station. Then on Thursday morning, each student will get the chance to go on stage and be asked a formal word that they must spell out in front of an audience.
The high scores from the preliminary round and the stage round will then determine who will proceed to the final rounds.
The Dowlen family knows much of what to expect when they arrive in Washington today. A few weeks ago, Callie Jones, last year's regional winner from Midland, met with Sam and his family. She and her family gave the Dowlens some spelling tips and shared their experiences at the 2007 national bee.
"It was such a neat experience ... We were just so thankful for them," Stephanie said later.
Along with the bee contests, the Scripps company has also planned various events for the competitors. There is an awards banquet the last night of the week, for which Sam recently purchased a new suit and tie. He'll also get to visit the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian as one of the field trips he picked.
It's right up the alley for the sixth-grader who hopes to one day study automotive engineering and work with, as he puts it, "future car kinds of stuff."
"Just a normal kid that spells really well," is how Stephanie describes her oldest. She and her husband homeschool Sam and his brother, Sawyer, for reasons that they believe would only benefit their lives. Yet for Sam, his love for words came about before he was even enrolled in school.
He was born four weeks early. His lungs were not fully developed, and he spent several weeks in the intensive care unit. For two years, his parents had to sit with him and do 15-minute breathing treatments nearly everyday. To pass the time Stephanie and Scott said that they would read to Sam as he sat on their laps.
"He always loved words and reading," Stephanie said.
His grandmother, Sheila tells a story of when he first discovered the dictionary.
"Our experience with Sam and words is exciting because it's where he is today," she said.
When he was 3, Sheila said she was reading a book to him to help him pass the time while he was doing the treatment. The two came across a word that Sam did not know the meaning of. Sheila looked at him and told him that they could go and look it up in a dictionary.
As Sam followed his grandmother to the dictionary, she watched her grandson's eyes grow bigger as he started flipping through the new-found book.
"Grandma," he finally said. "It's words. It's a whole book of words."
Though it's been almost a decade since, the story brings a smile to her voice as she recalls the memory.
"I never saw someone get so excited over a dictionary," Sheila said. "He couldn't read the words, but he knew that it was full of them."
The dictionary Sam won at the regional spelling bee competition at Midland College in March is on the edge of the Dowlens' dining room table. It looks to be about 8 inches thick and weighs almost as much as a bowling ball.
It would intimidate Noah Webster himself.
Approximately 400,000 words are found on its thin 3,000-plus pages. Sam has already been warned that the judges can ask for the spelling of any one of those words.
The first word that Sam came across when he opened his new dictionary was "acetabuloplasty." He said it threw him for a loop.
So how does one study hundreds of thousands of words in less than two months?
For Sam, his family thought it would be best that he first learn the roots of different origins. Everyday he looks up some words on the Internet to check his spelling and to hear their pronunciations. He has self-quizzes on CD-ROMs that he uses to prepare.
The last month at the Dowlen house has been pretty routine. Each day, beginning around 9 a.m., the Dowlen boys sit down at the dining room table to begin their studies for the day. Using a literature-based curriculum, they both are reading constantly, Stephanie said.
"It's not really like a textbook," she said.
Their kitchen is turned into a science lab for experiments. The family's dog barks in his cage as the three Dowlen cats -- Sidney, Selah and Simon -- scurry around the house.
Sitting next to each other at the table in the white-walled dining room with hunter green molding matching the sofa cushions in the next room, Stephanie opens up Sam's spelling textbook for an afternoon exercise.
The first word is "cylinder." She reads it aloud and uses it in a sentence for her son: "We broke the cylinder in the automobile."
"I think I'm going to get this one," Sam says as he writes it down on a sheet of paper.
He listens as his mom reads the correct spelling,
"I did," he answers.
"Good job," replies Stephanie.
And the two high-five each other.
_ _ _
Audrie Palmer can be reached at palmer@mrt.com
_ _ _
The Scripps National Spelling Bee's Web site (www.spellingbee.com) will post competition results on Thursday and Friday.
The quarterfinals will air live on ESPN360.com 1 p.m. 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The semifinals will air live on ESPN 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday
The championship finals will air live on ABC 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.
"Bromeliad," his mom, Stephanie, says. In her lap, rests a Hexco Academy spelling book; across the edges of the pages are Post-its and tabs splitting up the words by the language of origin -- including French, American Indian, Latin, Hawaiian and Afrikaans.
Tonight, the Dowlen family is in the Swedish section.
Sam looks at the ceiling to concentrate. He's anxious and skittish with all the energy that's stored in the body of a 12-year-old boy. He starts to rattle off the letters as his eyes skim the room. He shifts on the couch as his mom congratulates him on correctly spelling the word and reads him another one.
And for Sam, who has loved words -- all words -- since he was a toddler, having to be tested each night isn't as much a chore for him as it is for most boys his age, who would rather be outside shooting hoops or playing Legos in their rooms.
Actually, Sam is that same boy. During the week, he attends basketball practice for his homeschool team, the Midessa Warriors. When he's at home, a small room in the back of the family's doublewide mobile home is his sanctuary. Along the side wall is his twin-sized bed; lining the other three walls is his childhood. And plastered around the room are posters of the latest Legos gadgets and gizmos that he has acquired, a few headliners like "Legos Mars Mission."
The boy, who entertains his family on occasion with his high-pitched impersonation of the Disney character "Stitch," is in love with the age-old toy. As he shows off his bedroom, he plops down on the floor and sits Indian-style to demonstrate some of his favorite pieces.
But out in the living room he's a student, and for now that means he must study an hour every night with his mom and dad, Scott.
After all, he's representing the Midland region this week at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the nation's capital.
Where the term "bee" comes from, no one knows. As far back as the 1800s, American culture has had quilting bees and apple bees and barn-raising bees. Quite possibly it could mean a gathering of some sort. (OK it does. But the mystery is gone once you know it.)
Over the course of a week, an annual gathering, known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee, takes place at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of kids and their parents buzz around the Independence Concourse in droves.
They come from all over -- the United States, American Samoa, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the U.S. Virgin Islands -- before heading to the fifth floor of the hotel for the competition. Some are knocked out after that first round or two, while only a handful spell their way into victory and the final rounds, which are televised live on ESPN and ABC.
Sixteen students are representing the Lone Star State -- 5 percent of the 288 students competing in this year's bee. Sam Dowlen is number 255.
The first spelling bee was started in 1925 by the Louisville Courier-Journal with nine students. Since then, it's been presented every year, except for 1943-1945 when World War II brought the contest to a halt, and the number of competitors has continued to grow. This year, the 135 boys and 153 girls competing is the largest number so far to enter in the contest.
The official Bee Week kicks off today and runs until Friday night. Up until Tuesday evening, the competitors can take their first round of words at a computer lab station. Then on Thursday morning, each student will get the chance to go on stage and be asked a formal word that they must spell out in front of an audience.
The high scores from the preliminary round and the stage round will then determine who will proceed to the final rounds.
The Dowlen family knows much of what to expect when they arrive in Washington today. A few weeks ago, Callie Jones, last year's regional winner from Midland, met with Sam and his family. She and her family gave the Dowlens some spelling tips and shared their experiences at the 2007 national bee.
"It was such a neat experience ... We were just so thankful for them," Stephanie said later.
Along with the bee contests, the Scripps company has also planned various events for the competitors. There is an awards banquet the last night of the week, for which Sam recently purchased a new suit and tie. He'll also get to visit the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian as one of the field trips he picked.
It's right up the alley for the sixth-grader who hopes to one day study automotive engineering and work with, as he puts it, "future car kinds of stuff."
"Just a normal kid that spells really well," is how Stephanie describes her oldest. She and her husband homeschool Sam and his brother, Sawyer, for reasons that they believe would only benefit their lives. Yet for Sam, his love for words came about before he was even enrolled in school.
He was born four weeks early. His lungs were not fully developed, and he spent several weeks in the intensive care unit. For two years, his parents had to sit with him and do 15-minute breathing treatments nearly everyday. To pass the time Stephanie and Scott said that they would read to Sam as he sat on their laps.
"He always loved words and reading," Stephanie said.
His grandmother, Sheila tells a story of when he first discovered the dictionary.
"Our experience with Sam and words is exciting because it's where he is today," she said.
When he was 3, Sheila said she was reading a book to him to help him pass the time while he was doing the treatment. The two came across a word that Sam did not know the meaning of. Sheila looked at him and told him that they could go and look it up in a dictionary.
As Sam followed his grandmother to the dictionary, she watched her grandson's eyes grow bigger as he started flipping through the new-found book.
"Grandma," he finally said. "It's words. It's a whole book of words."
Though it's been almost a decade since, the story brings a smile to her voice as she recalls the memory.
"I never saw someone get so excited over a dictionary," Sheila said. "He couldn't read the words, but he knew that it was full of them."
The dictionary Sam won at the regional spelling bee competition at Midland College in March is on the edge of the Dowlens' dining room table. It looks to be about 8 inches thick and weighs almost as much as a bowling ball.
It would intimidate Noah Webster himself.
Approximately 400,000 words are found on its thin 3,000-plus pages. Sam has already been warned that the judges can ask for the spelling of any one of those words.
The first word that Sam came across when he opened his new dictionary was "acetabuloplasty." He said it threw him for a loop.
So how does one study hundreds of thousands of words in less than two months?
For Sam, his family thought it would be best that he first learn the roots of different origins. Everyday he looks up some words on the Internet to check his spelling and to hear their pronunciations. He has self-quizzes on CD-ROMs that he uses to prepare.
The last month at the Dowlen house has been pretty routine. Each day, beginning around 9 a.m., the Dowlen boys sit down at the dining room table to begin their studies for the day. Using a literature-based curriculum, they both are reading constantly, Stephanie said.
"It's not really like a textbook," she said.
Their kitchen is turned into a science lab for experiments. The family's dog barks in his cage as the three Dowlen cats -- Sidney, Selah and Simon -- scurry around the house.
Sitting next to each other at the table in the white-walled dining room with hunter green molding matching the sofa cushions in the next room, Stephanie opens up Sam's spelling textbook for an afternoon exercise.
The first word is "cylinder." She reads it aloud and uses it in a sentence for her son: "We broke the cylinder in the automobile."
"I think I'm going to get this one," Sam says as he writes it down on a sheet of paper.
He listens as his mom reads the correct spelling,
"I did," he answers.
"Good job," replies Stephanie.
And the two high-five each other.
_ _ _
Audrie Palmer can be reached at palmer@mrt.com
_ _ _
The Scripps National Spelling Bee's Web site (www.spellingbee.com) will post competition results on Thursday and Friday.
The quarterfinals will air live on ESPN360.com 1 p.m. 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
The semifinals will air live on ESPN 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday
The championship finals will air live on ABC 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.
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Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of mywesttexas.com.
Alex Vara wrote on May 28, 2008 11:26 PM:
" Wonderful article. I am in awe of the abilities of this young boy. Just to be where he's at today in Washington D.C. and understanding what he's had to overcome along the way is truly a miracle of God. We'll be rootin' for him all the way from here in Midland, TX.
Way to go Sam!! We're proud of you!! "
Way to go Sam!! We're proud of you!! "
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Sheila Dowlen wrote on May 28, 2008 4:16 PM:
Thank you all for the great encouragement and support!
Sheila Dowlen "