A  draining, exhausting contest Thursday night brought glory to New York.
No, we’re not talking about the Rangers’ return to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in two decades — though we’re certainly proud of our hometown hockey team. We’re talking about the spelling victory of 14-year-old Sriram Hathwar, an eighth-grader from upstate Painted Post.
Hathwar and 13-year-old Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, are worthy co-champions of the 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee. Theirs was the first tie since 1962. As co-champs, each young man will take home more than $33,000 in cash and prizes.
This was Hathwar’s fifth national spelling bee and Sujoe’s second. Together they showed academic competition can be as rewarding and exciting as it is in sports.
Certainly ESPN gets it: In addition to football, baseball, basketball and so on, each year it broadcasts the Spelling Bee finals. And we suspect even for those who do not return home with trophies, the competition itself boosts learning and confidence.
Look around the world. In nations where students excel, competition is a big reason: competition among schools, competition among teachers and tutors, competition among students. We see some of that spirit in the best of our charter schools, which encourage competition in everything from the classroom to the chessboard.
Imagine what could happen if instead of fighting testing and shying away from competition, some of the spirit of our newest Spelling Bee champions would rub off on New York’s approach to public education.