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| Think at your own risk. |
| Monday, July 18, 2005 |
| Fighting Wizbang words... |
Updated: Filed under "satire" today by someone called Paul at Wizbangblog, in reference to a story, entitled Ebonics suggested for district, about an Oakland, California school district's decision to incorporate "Ebonics" into the coursework for the heavily African-American student body:
I finally found something that I agree with California liberals on. ... Black kids are too stupid to learn english, we all know that. So why should we try to teach them? Let them stick to their own kind. If we teach them english then they'll be reading then the next thing you know they'll be taking our jobs and trying to move into our neighborhoods. I say we keep them stupid. If not, how will I ever get anyone to pick my cotton?
"Pick my cotton...?" Okay, well file this under "kiss my ass" [Disclaimer: the foregoing was meant purely as sarcasm. No offense was intended to any party, whether or not they were prepared to actually kiss my ass...]. The post touched off a furor on Wizbang over whether it was proper satire. I, for one, actually agree with Paul that it makes no sense to bring "ebonics" into the classroom (though he probably shouldn't quit his day job and camp out outside "Chappelle's Show" just yet.) Black kids, like kids of every other ethnicity, should be taught to speak standard English -- for their own sakes (they'll want to get jobs someday, not to mention getting into, and through, college) and for society's (an educated population is good for the economy). So the Oakland area school district is over the rainbow with their idea. Particularly frightening is this thought, also from the San Bernadino Sun article:
"Beginning in the 2005-06 school year, teachers will receive training on black culture and customs." I'm just picturing with dread, some gawky, white science teacher strolling around the campus trying to figure a way to incorporate the phrase "fo shizzle" into the lesson. (Shudder). All this "affirming and recognizing" ebonics by school bureaucrats stikes me as goofball, nanny-state hoakum.
But... and it's a big "but..." There's also this from a California sociologist qoted in the article:
"For many of these students Ebonics is their language, and it should be considered a foreign language. ... These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language." If by that the sociologist means employing some of the same tools used in "ESOL" (English as a second language) to get the kids on track, then I concur. Use whatever tools are available to get these kids proficient in standard English. If ESOL is the best method, so be it, so long as their ebonics use is not being reinforced or even worse, modeled by goofy teachers... And school districts in tough areas, where poverty and lack of higher education abound, would do well to hire more teachers who understand the challenges faced by the students in front of them -- that means recruiting more Black teachers, and particularly, more Black male teachers, possibly even "borrowing" them from other fields, and paying them enough to make it worth their while to stay awhile and try to save some of these young Black kids from oblivion.
So "yes and no" on the ebonics in the classroom thing. But if you go there with the cotton picking thing again, it's your ass.
Update 2: The right weighs in. Kimberly Swigert at Number2Pencil asks a good question regarding the students in question: "If Ebonics is all that's keeping them interested, what's going to happen when they enter the real world, where Ebonics won't be the accepted form of communication?" LaShawn Barber showers brief but unmistakable contempt on the Cali proposal, and links to Malkin ("Ebonics be back!"), D.C. Thornton (who provides personal testimony that he didn't need Ebonics crutch to learn to speak properly ... ), and Michael King who is off the mark in saying the schools would be teaching Ebonics to kids -- the point is, the kids already know it, dog... |
posted by JReid @ 10:57 PM   |
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