Kiwi teen wins place in US national spelling bee contest

A Kiwi teenager living in Florida has won a place in the televised finals of America's national "spelling bee" contest, and his proud mother says part of the credit is due to the New Zealand education system.

Grade eight student, Sam Lawson, 14, has never attended a "regular" school in either New Zealand or the United States, but beat the best spellers from 42 conventional schools to advance to the finals in Washington.

His parents, Paul and Linda Lawson, formerly of Canterbury, educated three older sons with New Zealand lessons before home-schooling Sam.

"The main motivation for us to homeschool our children was the New Zealand Correspondence School, which we used when we first moved to the US," Mrs Lawson said. "He will be going to Washington to represent not only the Florida Virtual Academy, but the New Zealand education system as well".

Two years ago Sam enrolled in the "virtual school" -- the closest local equivalent to the Correspondence School - and has been studying over the internet.

Sam said today that he is "really excited" after winning the regional Scripps Howard Spelling Bee contest in Florida's Collier County, competing against children from public and private schools.

Sam said he just studied the word list provided by the contest organisers. He was a perfect speller in his finals, knocking out the last rival competitor with "immalleable" and then spelling "synapse" for the win.

The national competition has grown more competitive since its broadcast on ESPN sports television and the recent movie, Spellbound. Two other spelling bee movies are due out this year: Bee Season, starring Richard Gere, and Akeelah and the Bee, starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne.

He will face America's top spellers in Washington, from May 31 to June 2, though he told NZPA today that he was "somewhat nervous".

"I am hoping to do well because the Florida Virtual Academy is still an experimental programme, and if I do well, it will reflect well on the school," he said in an email. "We still do not know if funding will be approved for next year, so hopefully this will help."

Sam is one of 285 students on-line at the academy. Each pupil receives textbooks and on-line instruction, and a computer, which keeps track of how long it takes to complete a lesson, while he or she studies algebra, literary analysis, American history, life science and intermediate art, at his own pace.

"I have to put a lot more time into the algebra," Mrs Lawson said. "Sam works well on his own."

He spends almost six hours a day doing classwork, and once a month meets teachers and other pupils for field trips.

"It's fun," said Sam, who still has a touch of a Kiwi accent even though he was only three when his family moved from Lincoln, near Christchurch, to Florida. He has grandmothers in Christchurch and Mt Maunganui.

The Jacksonville-based school receives performance-based state funding equivalent to US$4800 ($6527) per student -- about US$700 less than is usually allocated for traditional "bricks and mortar" state schools.

"Sam is the one who came up with the idea to have (on-line) students compete for (the spelling bee)," Patty Betoni, who manages the academy's six teachers: "We're really proud of him".

The Lawson family - which announced the win on their own website - moved from New Zealand to Naples, on the southwest Florida coast, 11 years ago when Paul Lawson was offered a job with Allen Systems Group, a computer software company.

- NZPA