Smart, Sexy, Sassy & Bitingly Witty

July 27, 2005

English as a Second Language -- Ebonics gone totally wrong!

San Bernardino County Sun - News

San Bernardino City Unified School District, Incorporating Ebonics into a new school policy!

“…The goal of the district's policy is to improve black students' academic performance by keeping them interested in school…”

Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State San Bernardino, commended the San Bernardino Board of Education for approving the policy in June.

Texeira suggested that including Ebonics in the program would be beneficial for students. Ebonics, a dialect of American English that is spoken by many blacks throughout the country, was recognized as a separate language in 1996 by the Oakland school board.

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

Please! let’s insure that students today have absolutely no chance of successful professional careers! Especially if you are African American. This is absolutely ludicrous! Claiming that African American students would have an easier time learning if instruction was conducted in “Their Language,” is insulting! Yeah they may have an easier time now, but what happens when they are out of school and looking for that 75K a year job in sales, or the IT job? Do you honestly think if the individual is not properly versed in the English language, using proper grammar and enunciation he stands a rat’s chance in hell of succeeding! Please stop condemning these kids to failure because you want to ease your “Tolerant Conscience!” over difficult but proper decisions to teach and enforce proper language practices! Students need to learn the tools and the language that affords them the best chance a making something for themselves, not merely “getting by.” And it is time the “Leaders” in our educational policy took note of this.

Accommodation, and “Catering to the lowest common denominator” (that’s a sociological math term for those of you who might have attended a San Bernardino City School) is precisely what is bringing our schools down! We might as well start teaching classes in Chinese or Hindi, because these are the countries that are going to EAT OUR LUNCH! If we maintain this mentality about teaching our kids!

          



 
 
 
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