2015 Winners, National Geography Bee

KATHLENE M. writes:

Does the National Geography Bee competition fulfill its original purpose — to motivate American students to learn geography — when 44% of its state winners are “Indian-American,” thereby changing the competition to the “Desi Hunger Games 2”?   Another competition, the National Spelling Bee, has been so dominated by “Indian-Americans” that it’s now called the Desi Hunger Games.

Within the last four years, “Indian-Americans” have been slowly taking over the National Geography competitions.  This year may be a new record, as 24 of the 54 winners were from India.

Since 2012, Indians have been bragging about their record numbers in the Geo Bee, so word is spreading throughout their insular community that this is the new game in town to dominate.  But when each year passes, as increasing numbers of Indians win these events, it seems that it is “a statistical impossibility…there is more than randomness going on.”

To prepare, the participants go to special ethnic camps or seminars in other states so that they can out-compete each other.   As we also have learned, cheating is rampant overall in the Asian community (which includes Indians) due to the pressure to succeed at all costs.   The National Geo Bee does not allow “written notes” and other forms of recording, but the parents of these high-achieving Indian kids are there, taking notes.  We know because we attended the 2016 California State Geo Bee in Fresno.  That event was dominated by the ubiquitous presence of Indian contestants and their parents and families.

The joy of learning geography has now been reduced to another blood sport with status and money motivators even though the amounts, except for the top prize, are not much.  I wonder if Americans or schools will even care to participate in the Geo Bee and learn about geography once they realize another competition has been turned into a high-stakes event that requires year-long preparation, and that seems statistically skewed against them.

Furthermore since it has become so ultra-competitive and the questions can no longer be recycled regularly, new esoteric questions about “weird-but-true” geography facts must be written.  Are such esoteric facts even relevant when the original purpose of the Bee was to give Americans a broad understanding of geography? As it becomes a Desi Hunger Games 2, the National Geo Bee will have less participation from average Americans and schools, thus defeating its original goal to have Americans learn geography.

— Comments —

Mark Jaws writes:

As I have mentioned before, for three years I served as the senior intelligence controller for a Department of Defense organization that went around the world running modeling and simulation exercises for US forces and our allies. I supported no less than six exercises involving Japanese, Thais, and Koreans. They all cheat – particularly the Japanese. The Koreans cheat far less only because Americans are so integrated with their exercise cells that it would be difficult. But after my first exercise with the Japanese I realized quickly that they had so corrupted the process that any prospects for serious learning had been obliterated.

Dan R. writes:

Reading this, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my daughter’s participation in a district-level spelling bee held near our state capital, about a dozen years ago. The competition was going on longer than anticipated and at a certain point the officials indicated that the list they were working from had been exhausted, and thus were going to take a break to select a new list from which to ask the words. With about eight competitors remaining, the new list weeded them out more quickly. Among those eliminated from this final group was an Indian boy, whose mother raised a hue and cry as he exited. She contended that the use of the new list was unfair because the contestants did not have a chance to study it! The officials tried to mollify her, but to no avail, as she persisted in her complaints for a couple of more minutes. Her last words were threats to sue!

Jan. 14, 2018

Anonymous writes:

You white folk are jealous because little Hindu kids are beating your kids at geography and spelling contests. This is quite sad considering that white people colonized half the world back in the day. Also, it’s funny how Hindu kids are better than white kids at spelling bees, despite them having thick Indian accents and English being the white man’s language.

This shows that the Hindu man is dominant in American academia. Most doctors, scientists, and engineers are Hindu/Jain. The rest are Jewish, Korean, or Chinese. It’s hard to find a White Male Protestant or Catholic who is a doctor or engineer. This is because the Hindu race is superior to others when it comes to academics.

If the white man wants his kids to do better at academics than the Hindu man’s kids, then the white man should encourage his kids to do academic competitions and to start them at their local schools.

Laura writes:

Were Indian patriots jealous of the British when they sought self-determination?

We are not jealous of your culture, we just don’t want it to dominate ours.

I don’t care if Indians make the most fantastic engineers. They should not be given the opportunity to out-compete native Americans, who often are rejected from medical schools and tech jobs.

Your arrogance is all the more reason why we should seek to preserve our independence. After all, you are the beneficiary of American largesse — and yet you show no gratitude for that. You actually seem to have a revenge mentality.

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