Spelling Bee champ reminds me of how the US is failing (but it's not inevitable)

I take nothing away from these incredible kids who are so much better than I was at their age (and I was our local spelling bee champ!)

These kids are amazing. Inspiring even.

They make me think less of myself as a parent, and I’m not fishing for your empathy.

And last year’s unbelievable performance:

Take a look at the stuff they had to spell…this from the second-place finisher: Sarvadnya Kadam - 2025 Results | Scripps National Spelling Bee

This year’s winner is Faizan Zaki. Second place is Sarvadnya Kadam. Third place, Sarv Dharavane. Last year’s winner was Bruhat Soma.

At my kid’s high school, their very highly-ranked debate team is mostly kids with similar names.

In other words, mostly kids from the Asian subcontinent (India and Pakistan primarily) and some kids from East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, etc.)

These kids are achieving remarkable things growing up in the US, going to the same schools that kids who look like my kids are going to, but the children of immigrants are just crushing it while my kid is playing Fortnite.

This is, and pretty much only is, a matter of parenting.

I’ll be talking about this on the show soon, but there’s a reason that China, contrary to the apparently persistent view of so many Americans, is achieving incredible things in science (more patents and more good research than the US), in manufacturing (no longer just “cheap Chinese plastic junk”), in ship-building (from WSJ/CSIS: “A single Chinese shipbuilder last year produced more commercial ships by tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has made since World War II.”)

India is on a big push to catch up too.

And here in the US we’re worried about pronouns and letting liberals destroy economic development in the name of “climate change” and even letting men compete in women’s sports. How the hell are we supposed to compete against China if we can’t even compete properly here?

American parents and schools and non-profits need to make serious efforts to create home-grown kids who are smarter, harder-working, and gritter than so many in this generation (including at least one of my kids.) The only young people who I think consistently meet and exceed the sort of goals I have in mind are those who graduate from a US military academy.

The United States has every advantage but today’s American-born adults seem to be squandering our heritage of entrepreneurship and competitive drive.

Really, one of the few things that gives me hope for America’s future is immigration. Not illegal immigration, but rather the parents of these incredible Spelling Bee champs (and near-champs) who remind us what kids are capable of doing and becoming, and further remind us that when so many kids don’t achieve those things, it’s not “the country’s” fault; it’s (probably) your fault and mine.