Bar: Trouble Kit

When Mr. BB turned on the television this morning, I was thrilled to see that it's once again time for the Scopes National Spelling Bee! I love watching the spelling bee, and I consider myself a "true" fan--I watched even before all the movies and attention made it cool (okay, not really cool, but at least not pathetic) to have a mild interest in the spelling bee. In the mornings, I like TV that I don't actually have to watch to know what's going on because I'm always running around getting ready and making breakfast and hunting for my keys. Since the visual stimulation of a spelling bee is on the low side, it's a perfect morning program.

I also like to see if I know any of the words. I am a very good speller, among normal people (although I'm as prone to typos as anyone, so don't get all high-and-mighty if I forget to hit spell check on occasion), but these kids are amazing. This morning was the fourth round, and I think I got one word right out of the twenty or so I overheard. Humbling, but not much to get upset over, unlike getting certain other and more pressing things wrong, right?

Which brought me to the idea of a Trouble Kit. When I was in elementary school and we had weekly spelling tests, my mom LOVED to take me over the weekly list. It was something she really and truly looked forward to, for some reason. I can remember countless times sitting on the sofa with her in a recliner reading words to me and tsking if I was wrong. I did not enjoy these sessions particularly, but I think it was helpful. My mom's pride and joy, though, was the Trouble Kit. One of her elementary school teachers made them all have trouble kits for words they misspelled, and the trouble kit words were ones for special review and attention. I'm proud that my trouble kit was always rather tiny, but it did include words like "embarrass" and "privilege" (which I REALLY thought should have a 'd'--"knowledge" has a 'd' and it's the same syllable, right?).

So I now have a Bar Exam Trouble Kit. As I go through the answers to the MBE questions or the Essays, if there is something I got wrong or didn't know (even if I got the question right), it goes in the trouble kit. Hopefully the act of realizing I don't know something plus the act of typing it into a list, combined with occasional read-throughs of the trouble kit will yield a sinking-in of unfamiliar concepts. Love it. Which I guess means a thanks to my mom for all those painful mornings of going over spelling (and if you think this didn't migrate into taking me over vocabulary words once I got to high school...).