Why Indian American children dominate the spelling of the nation

Last night, 13-year-old Faizan Zaki from Plano, Texas won the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Of the past 36 champions, including Faizan, whose parents moved from India, 30 were Indian-American.

If you think the pattern is fluke, consider this. In 2018, almost half of the 41 Scripps finalists were Indian-American. In 2019, eight contestants, mostly 13-year-olds, were tied together after 17 rounds, and then survived three more rounds by spelling all the words perfectly. The judges gave it and decided to put an end to the toughest people. competition By unveiling the tie and declaring eight co-champions (Albanese, 2019). Seven of the eight winners were Indian Americans.

what happened? Why do Indian American kids consistently blow up the competition?

Her Hank, author Foreign policy The magazine believes that part of the answer lies in the Indian education system, which emphasizes memorization and memorization. She also argues that the spelling bees “represent the way Indians “assimilate” into American society mainstream, and that “highly skilled immigrants tend to enroll their children in more academically oriented extracurricular pursuits” (Hannun, 2013).

Author of Ben Paynter slateIndian American success belongs to the North South Foundation, which holds minor league spell contests nationwide for young Indian Americans. He says that most Indian-American Spelling Champions have been competing for many years at regional competitions sponsored by the North South Foundation (Paynter, 2016).

These factors can explain the incredible success of Indian Americans in the Spell Contest, but Indian American students also excel at other types of academic conferences. In 2013, Aseem Jha scored a perfect score in the SAT and Action. In 2019, high school student Krithik Ramesh won first place in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. In 2023, six Indian-American middle schools were one of the top 10 finalists in the annual 3M Young Scientist Challenge. In 2024, 13 of the top 40 finalists in Regeneron’s Honorable Science Talent Search were Indian American High School seniors.

Encouraged by parents and gaining experience through preliminary competition is undoubtedly giving Indian-American students an edge, but I would like to bet that cultural beliefs also play an important role. Specifically, people from different cultural backgrounds often have different beliefs about their nature Intelligence And its variability. These beliefs can determine whether they are difficult or how long they will last in the face of failure.

Two concepts of intelligence

For years, cultural psychologists have known that as a group, North Americans are more likely to register than Asians. Real thing Intelligence theory is likely to be accepted by Asians, such as Chinese, Koreans, and Indians. incremental Theory of Intelligence (Rattan, Savani, Naidu, & Dweck, 2012).

Those with entity views consider their abilities and traits to be innate traits of their own. These features are more or less fixed and are highly resistant to change. According to this view, one’s intelligence is an innate attribute that does not change much over time.

Those who take a progressive view believe that their abilities and traits are often fluid and can accommodate the efforts we make. According to this view, one’s intelligence can be changed and can be improved through effort and hard work.

Not surprisingly, those who hold the entity view of intelligence are likely to condemn the academic failure and set-off against their unchanging intellectual abilities. Every time I hear one American student say, “I’m not good at math,” I wish I had nickel.

In contrast, those who hold a progressive view of intelligence respond by doubling their efforts to academic failures and set-offs and trying new strategies. They say, “I need to spend more time studying and maybe I should get help from my tutor.”

A few years ago, psychologists Anita Ratan, Carol Dweck and their colleagues discovered that university students in Bangalore, India are far more likely to have a step-by-step view of intelligence than university students in California. Three-quarters of the Indians surveyed said Almost everything Babies become very intelligent. Seven in ten said intelligence can change dramatically over time. In contrast, two-thirds of the Americans surveyed said some Babies become very intelligent. Six out of ten people expressed intelligence you can’t It changes significantly over time (Rattan et al., 2012).

Belief in the possibility of change in intelligence and other psychological traits motivate us to stick to it, to make ourselves better, to work harder, and not to give up. Indian Americans are more likely to retain that belief as a group. Is it no wonder that young Indian Americans have dominated Scripps National Spelling Bee for the past 25 years? They have what it needs – I believe that if they work hard and don’t give up, they will get better and better.