P-o-o-r h-e-a-d-l-i-n-e

Fourteen-year-old Greg Thaler finishes in the top 50 among 240 of the nation’s best spellers and your headline (June 4) reads, “Maine speller falls short in Washington bee.” Is that the best the BDN headline writers can do? Was that meant to encourage Thaler and other students with similar aspirations?

Yes, the National Spelling Bee is a competition with winners and losers. But in a day and age when many people Thaler’s age (and older) can barely spell at all, the BDN could have been more laudatory and less critical of this young man. Scott K. Fish Dixmon

The article [about the spelling bee] was interesting and quite complimentary. However, in light of all the recent publicity about teens not feeling support of peers or adults, a more positive headline noting success rather than falling short would have been more appropriate. Lehan A. Edwards Pembroke