> if you so thoroughly reject the premise of the event, why are you even participating?

Any debater making these arguments on the affirmative side almost certainly includes an argument answering this question when they are doing it.

Yep. As it turns out, people who debate k's already have well thought out answers to the knee jerk reaction arguments.

Spelling bees are a quirk of the English language (though there are other languages with more perverse orthography see Hindi).

I feel like the notion that words have a "correct" spelling, and memorizing that is turned into a competition that is often televised and broadcast and highly promoted to all middle-school students in the US, is probably political in nature. At least one should probably question why it is we even have spelling bees, the history of spelling bees, the structural questions, the constitution of the game itself as it relates to the worship of the Word (Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, as they say), and the place of the Word in the organization of society. But those are only a few things you could ask.

A debate student, when asked to argue about the place of spelling bees in our society, might generate these very arguments. A young student who is winning a lot of spelling bees probably wouldn't, and they'd get laughed out of the auditorium if they couldn't answer and then started arguing that spelling bees were racist or something like that. I think your point is moot.

sure, one can certainly question why spelling bees exist. I agree that the very idea of "correct spelling" in a language with so many borrowed/transliterated words doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. but at the same time, it's a lot easier to communicate when you can mostly replicate the same spelling and syntax of other writers. the spelling bee is just a game to motivate children to learn this practical skill. similarly, the objective of high school debate is not to settle important issues once and for all. it is an opportunity to practice tactical rhetoric skills.

I was exactly the kind of student who loved to "deconstruct" this sort of contrived activity in high school. but frankly, now that I have the perspective to understand how insufferable this behavior is, I regret it. just let people practice the skill they want to practice in a fun competition. you don't have to participate if you think it's dumb.