I was a judge at the Warren County spelling bee.

It was a great opportunity for students to show their poise, memory, and knowledge in front of a crowd.

The students were amazing.

I don’t remember being in a spelling bee. I’m sure somewhere along the line I competed in spelling in school, but it was probably just a competition among the members of my class.

This year’s pronouncer/moderator, Ruth Nelson, admitted that she remembered being on stage for a spelling bee 52 years ago. I’m very confident I was not in a spelling bee that long ago.

Maybe I should have been in one (not 52 years ago). It’s up my alley. I’m a word guy.

In times gone by, spelling was a big deal. Then spell-check came along and people who were spelling impaired could get words right without going to that thing we old-timers call a dictionary.

More recently, online thesauruses — those used to be books, you kids — were developed and sitcoms could get laughs out of ridiculously over-done letters in support of adoption.

Then, it was texting. I am convinced that no one under the age of 20 can spell ‘laugh out loud’ nor ‘I don’t know’. Maybe there are some — those who don’t have their own phones yet.

I fear there are people out there who text without knowing any words, relying entirely on emojis.

I’m not even going to venture into capitalization and punctuation here.

So, how much value does spelling have in this increasingly digital world?

Does misspelling words slow one down? Sure.

Will being able to spell pauper or opinionated or implacable get someone a better job? No, probably not.

But I sure hope everyone knows or learns a little bit of spelling before they bombard me with their comments, opinions, and general wealth of knowledge.

I make spelling errors. They often turn out to be grossly public. I don’t especially like that.

Taking the next step (not toward ignorance) leads to a question of knowledge in general.

Other than winning on game shows or showing off at the local establishment, what does knowing stuff really do for people?

How valuable is knowledge when the person next to you can know more than you know about almost any topic by using his or her phone for a few seconds?

Is spelling an endangered skill?

Is knowledge far behind?