Amid all the news of doom and gloom, here's one reason for optimism: America's best spellers appear to be getting better and better. According to the Washington Post, these are some of the words which clinched the National Spelling Bee over the years:
1925: gladiolus1932: knack
1938: sanitarium
1940: therapy
1956: condominium
1960: eudaemonic
1973: vouchsafe
1980: elucubrate
1991: antipyretic
2001: succedaneum
2004: autochthonous
2006: Ursprache
2007: serrefine
2008: guerdon
"Knack," really? Maybe the "Greatest Generation" (whose members would have been right around 12 years old in 1932) weren't our greatest spellers ever. Or maybe, what with the Great Depression and all, they had other concerns on their mind. Regardless, it's pretty cool that American students (or at least .000001 percent of them) have gotten better at something.
