District to 'affirm' Ebonics

[Desertdog]

Ebonics, a dialect of American English spoken by many blacks, was recognized as a separate language by the Oakland, Calif., school board in 1996.

I wonder what qualifies the school board to determine what constitutes a foreign language, especially one that originated in the USA.

District to 'affirm' Ebonics
'It should be considered a foreign language'
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45334

A school district in Southern California approved the "affirmation and recognition" of Ebonics into its curriculum as a way to help black students improve academic performance.

The San Bernardino Board of Education says a pilot of the policy, known as the Students Accumulating New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishment Initiative, has been implemented at two city schools, according to the daily San Bernardino Sun.


Ebonics, a dialect of American English spoken by many blacks, was recognized as a separate language by the Oakland, Calif., school board in 1996.

Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, believes the program will be beneficial to students.

"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe,' Texeira told the Sun. "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."

Texeira acknowledged there are African Americans who disagree with her.

"They say that [black students] are lazy and that they need to learn to talk," she said.

The program, which will be implemented gradually, begins this fall when teachers receive training on black culture and customs. The district curriculum will include information on the historical, cultural and social impact of blacks in society.

Len Cooper, coordinator of the pilot program at the two city schools, said Ebonics won't actually be incorporated into the program, because of its "stigma."

"We are affirming and recognizing Ebonics through supplemental reading books for students," he explained.

Although the program is aimed at black students, other students can choose to participate, the Sun reported.

Board member Danny Tillman told the paper he pushed for the policy because he hoped it would increase the number of black students going to college and participating in advanced courses.

But Teresa Parra, board vice president, worries other minority groups, including Hispanics, will want their own programs.

"I've always thought that we should provide students support based on their needs and not on their race," she said.


Ratibu Jacocks, a member of a coalition of black activists – the Westside Action Group – said they are working with the district to ensure the policy is implemented appropriately.

"This isn't a feel-good policy. This is the real thing," said Jacocks.

He welcomes the idea of other ethnic groups lobbying for their own program.

"When you are doing what's right, others will follow,' Jacocks said. "We have led the way before the civil-rights movement opened the door for women's rights and other movements."


If you'd like to sound off on this issue, please take part in the WorldNetDaily poll.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/polls/

 

[seansean]

whoever thought this up is ##@$#$$ crazy
What they're really saying is, we give up. black people aren't going anywhere in this life anyway, so go ahead, speak ebonics, knock yourself out. It's a vicious combo of white liberal racism, and for black people who support this, self-hatred. Wow.

 

[Ky Larry]

California. The land of fruits and nuts.

 

[hkOrion]

see if we can keep this on-topic.

At least they're gearing them for outstanding roles in the community at large - they can join the Border Patrol!

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/cartoons//Cartoons/07-19-2005.gif

 

[Sindawe]

A school district in Southern California approved the "affirmation and recognition" of Ebonics into its curriculum as a way to help black students improve academic performance.

No, the way to improve acedemic performance is to have the students learn to read, speak and write in proper American english, not the ghetto derived gibberish that sounds like it came from a Fat Albert cartoon. :banghead:

But Teresa Parra, board vice president, worries other minority groups, including Hispanics, will want their own programs.

Hmmmm....it stikes me that as a caucasian, heterosexual, gun owning, cat/fish/spider keeping male, I'M a minority. So, I want MY children to be educated in a language of honor and strength! Namely, KLINGON!!!! I'll not be happy until I can attend my child's* performance of Hamlet and hear him say those immortal words

Daq taH joq ghobe' Daq taH




* if I had any children, which I don't. But I STILL want this to be part of the curriculum

 

[hkOrion]

oh yeah-

"I've always thought that we should provide students support based on their needs and not on their race," she said.

that's almost right out of Atlas Shrugged. Whatever they NEED to make them FEEL good!

 

[Old Dog]

Hmm. A school district supporting its children in ignorance, not willing to make them actually learn the tools (proper English) that they'll need to succeed in life ... Sad, simply sad.

 

[BigRedBowtie]

"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe,' Texeira told the Sun. "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."

YEAH- WE SHOULD TEACH THEM ENGLISH!!

Unfortunately, now we pander to them and tell them that they can get by in their native tongue, while teaching them just enough english to anger the rest of us.

How do you say, "Would you like fries with that" in Ebonics?

 

[El Tejon]

I hereby sentence the board to read Thomas Sowell's "Black Rednecks and White Liberals."

No, Professor, you ignorant hustler, "eubonics" is a British dialect transported to the American South and then to the North and West as Blacks fled Jim Crow for work in the cities.

How can one call themselves "Professor" and concurrently promote ignorance and poverty? I guess you have to be a Leftist to understand such a position. The Klan could not come up with such a way to hinder African-Americans.

 

[odysseus]

This is a disservice to the students, and puts them in a disadvantage. Ebonics is not a different langauge. You have to be seriously misguided to believe and act on that belief.

Funny how Bill Cosby has been also against this sort of policy and he is being further pushed aside by those who once looked up to him.

 

[NIGHTWATCH]

"This isn't a feel-good policy. This is the real thing," said Jacocks.

I mo wana what be happin wit dis.

 

[LiquidTension]

They say that [black students] are lazy and that they need to learn to talk

Bingo!

 

[CentralTexas]

Man!

Dat's the shiznit!
CT

 

[El Tejon]

CT, you got me straight trippin', boo.

 

[longeyes]

Mary Texeira, keep it real, sista.

I prefer Vato myself.

 

[SmershAgent]

Board member Danny Tillman told the paper he pushed for the policy because he hoped it would increase the number of black students going to college and participating in advanced courses.

So by validating and encouraging them to speak incomprehensible jargon that no one outside the projects understands, he thinks he's giving these kids some kind of academic advantage?

It's like Bill Cosby said in his infamous speech, you don't hear lawyers or doctors (or any successful professional) speaking that way.

Perhaps they need a pep talk from Samuel Jackson's character in Pulp Fiction - "English, mother----er! Do you speak it?"

 

[jefnvk]

I somehow doubt this would be treated as well nationally if it were Southern Drawl instead of ebonics.

It's about as dumb as letting kids get away with using internet acronyms instead of spelled out words in papers, especially research papers, because that is what they are comfortable using, and the teacher won't fail the kid because of backlash.

 

[STW]

My sister is a teacher in that district, teaching teachers how to improve their students reading. I'm sure this will make her job so much easier. Wait. I've never seen literature or a text book of any kind written in Ebonics. Many of the kids have enough trouble in that district without being set up to fail by the board. Idiots. I'll wait until after her birthday to call my sister to ask here about this. It should be colorful.

 

[Standing Wolf]

The Klan could not come up with such a way to hinder African-Americans.

The best slaves are those who manufacture their own shackles and leg irons.

 

[griz]

"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe,'

I will fall for that, errrrr.... I mean believe that line when they teach ebonics as a second language in the main curriculum. Just like German or Spanish. Until then, it's an excuse.

 

[KAR120C]

The huge but unspoken racist assumption behind this whole issue is...

"Eubonics will be the black language, just like English is the white language"

This is a lie. The vast majority of white people in this country came from ancestors who didn't speak English! None of my ancestors spoke it. They came from Sweden, Ireland, Germany, and France. My Grandmother came over on the boat from Sweden, changed her name and learned English. Why we don't expect the the same from people who have lived here for generations is just beyond me.

I'm no fan of English, it is an arbitrary and difficult language, but lets face it... we're stuck with it. English is the defacto official language of America.

Slave owners used to whip any slave they caught trying to learn to read. Now there are large elements of black culture that essentially do that to themselves Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

 

[silverlance]

hm.. the conscientious (and informed) opposition

i am a high-school english teacher in the middle of los angeles. (actually, i teach at the oldest high school in So.Cal and the second oldest in the state)
Before you begin to read, please read the entire article before mentally deciding on a particular stance - I don't write this just to start a fight - although argument is of course good and natural.

While I don't teach in a "black" school (mine has in recent years changed to a "brown" school), I do have a good number of black students and as a DRWC (an intervention "rescue" literacy program) teacher I am well aware of both the politics and the demands of teaching black students.

contrary to public opinion (and suge knight), most blacks do not talk like their rapper counterparts. and when they do, it is not because they don't know how to say "isn't", but rather because they choose not to.

returning to our point, however -

ebonics is a difficult and controversial subject - and rightly so. dr. sharroky, one of the leading researchers of american black language along with dr. hl gates (now at princeton) and dr. hollie (LAUSD), argue that ebonics should be TREATED (notice that I didn't say IS) as a foreign language might because it is in essence the product of roughly 14 west african language grammar structures combined with 200 years of slave english communication and 100 years of impoverished language "re-appropriation" (more on that later).

In other words, "ebonics" is West African Grammar (ie., Subject-Object-Verb as opposed to English's SubjectVerbObject) + Slave English (200 years of not being able to taught to read or write, and only enough English to work) + 100 years of "taking back" their ethnic identity (which had been removed thorugh slavery) - this would include the use of "nigga" to take back the derogatory "******".

I agree with him on this.

I also agree that while Ebonics should be TREATED as a foreign language, it is not one in that it really them very limited good - there is no country in the world that has offically adopted this language.

In essence, those who have actually read the work of black-vernacular researchers and are teaching blacks know that the discussion of Ebonics should not be to "elevate" Ebonics into Foreign language status alongside latin and german, but rather to give it validity as _A_ langauge. The last thing that a black kid needs to hear is, "You don't know how to talk". The truth is, he does - but not necessarily STANDARD ENGLISH.

And there is our job as teachers - to validate non-standard English, then use it as a medium to teach standard English.

Example:
"Romeo was a poser cuz he didn have his boy Mercutio back. He jus wan to look good and if I was Romeo I wud have shot Tyblat hisself."

"Ok, that's a good observation on Romeo's fatal delay in assisting Mercutio, although some would argue that Romeo was merely trying to avoid bloodshed, esp. since Tybalt had effectively become his cousin through marriage to Juliet. But let's clarify what a poser is. Can we do that using Standard English?"

---

You see?

Politicians, however, often misread, misrepresent, or misunderstand this research and the reasons why it is conducted. They may also not understand the basis of all language in that its intention is communication - that is why new editions of dictionaries have always to be printed (besides sales).

example: the use of apostrophes comes from the old use of "his".
Bob his hat = Bob's hat
Sherry hers shoe - Sherry's shoe

Of course, such "mis-takes" are often... intentional.

--

ultimately, blacks do not need to be coddled, falsely given credit, etc.

But it is my opinion that ANY language ought to be recognized as such, and not denigrated as "crap" simply because it is a derivative of some percieved "pure" language.

If that was the case, we are all speaking crap French/German/Latin/Greek, etc.

The alternative is to broadly invalidate nearly 12% of US population as mute and dumb. How willing do you think a student, esp a high school student who sees people beaten and killed on a regular basis, would be to learn from any teacher then?

 

[CentralTexas]

What we need

is someone at the top to say you know this is all crap! The predominant language of this country is English, learn it or don't succeed. We will not coddle you or insult those that came before. You came here as AMERICA was better than where you came from, why turn America into the slum or oppression you are escaping? We can't afford to print the drivers handbook in 32 languages either....
CT

 

[dasmi]

A school district in Southern California approved the "affirmation and recognition" of Ebonics into its curriculum as a way to help black students improve academic performance.

Um, so what happens when they go to college, or get a job?
People in corporate America generally speak english. Those speaking Ebonics won't go far. Which, of course, is the point of something like this. Keep the blacks down. Keep the blacks dependent on the Nanny State to care for them.

 

[Marshall]

Nothing like dumbing down America, don't believe me, just aks me.