Spellbound

In the movie Spellbound, kids are training and competing to win the national spelling bee. They all have different strategies and techniques they use to lead them to success. The parent's of these middle school aged kids play a big role in their journey to the national bee. I observed many different parenting types throughout the movie and saw the different ways these parents encouraged, supported, and pushed their kids. Neil's father was a prime example of a parent who is almost more dedicated then their child. Neil's dad trained him and made him practice as hard as he could. It almost seemed as if he wanted Neil to win more then Neil himself did. His motivation for Neil to win was for him to succeed and come out better than the rest. He was into education and was very smart himself. On the other hand, Ashley's mom was different. She was less into it then he was and was not pushing and excelling her daughter to practice and learn as much. Ashley's mother was motivated for her daughter to win but for different reasons. She was not unsupportive of her daughter, she was just less focused on helping her succeed as Neil's father was. Her motivation was just to see her daughter happy and to win something. Overall, the different motivations and strategies used by the parents of the kids in this movie vary greatly and create many different types of characters.