The World

The 81st competition of the Scripps National Spelling Bee concludes Friday night. More than 280 competitors from America to South Korea are competing to spell words they ve never heard of. The youngest contestant was eight-year-old
Srriram Hathwar (SHREER-ahm HATH-wahr. His mother, Roopa tells us how he prepared for the competition and about the word that defeated him. Then John turns to Maria Mariani, who helped develop spell check for IBM, to ask how important the skill of spelling in a spell check age.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.