…want to make sure black students are just as dumb. Read this, and try not to laugh/cry/curse:
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.’
Texeira said research has shown that students learn better when they fully comprehend the language they are being taught in.
“There are African Americans who do not agree with me. They say that (black students) are lazy and that they need to learn to talk,’ Texeira said.
Len Cooper, who is coordinating the pilot program at the two city schools, said San Bernardino district officials do not plan to incorporate Ebonics into the program.
“Because Ebonics can have a negative stigma, we’re not focusing on that,’ Cooper said. “We are affirming and recognizing Ebonics through supplemental reading books (for students).’ (Source)
Black parents who subject their kids to this mess have no one to blame but themselves.
More from Malkin.
Related post: Ebonics In Anti-Bush Ads
More ebonics blogging: D.C. Thornton, Michael King…
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Ebonics is not another language. Spanish, French, German, etc. those are languages. For people who work in those countries where the languages are spoken better learn them. If blacks want to get a job, get ahead, then they should learn how to speak proper English and not this Ebonics tripe.
This is a yet another example of the provincialism that is ruining the ghetto. I don’t think Ebonics is another language, but I definitely believe it’s a legitimate dialect. Countries and languages all over the world have dialects, and English is no exception.
However, what the brainwashers of the ghetto don’t understand is that standard English is necessary to communicate not just with the rest of the country, but the world. It’s common sense throughout the world that there has to be a standard means of communication.
Even in Africa, a place that the ghetto educators claim to understand, they have dialects and standard languages, and it is very well-understood that to get ahead you need to know how to communicate with as many people as possible. It’s not a “power structure” issue, either.
This is just soooo insulting, degrading and offensive to me as a Black woman. To insinuate that the reason Black children do not do well in school is because they are unable to assimilate plain English is assinine.
Slaves learned to read with no books, no formally trained teachers, no pencils, no pens, no special education, no electricity…after working all day AND under threat of death or punishment if caught.
Black children were literate and well-mannered in the 30s, 40s and 50s…despite “separate but equal,” few books, poor facilities and jim crow.
But the reason Black children can’t learn NOW is…language. Or lack of exposure to Black history.
right…
These people need to take off their rose-colored, liberal, “we gotta help the darkies” glasses and read some John McWhorter (who studies linguistics) and the latest book by Thomas Sowell “Black Rednecks and White Liberals.” The first chapter alone would help them quite a bit.
I don’t know where to begin. First, I’m against the idea that children need to be taught in a foreign language. If we want a united America, that’s the way to stop it. “My URI” is a link to an article that explains this much better than I can.
And don’t get me started on ebonics itself. I think it must have been started by teachers who realized they couldn’t teach proper English, so had to cover their butts.
This is so ridiculous its laughable. I’m sure the students at my “inner-city” school would love to have another reason why they shouldn’t achieve. Let me add that to the laundry list that is already out there so I can teach them how to muddle their way to mediocrity.
If you expect them to learn and speak proper English, then they will. Just the same as if you expect them to achieve, than most of them will. These guys never get it. Instead of inspiring and leading, they continue to lower the standard.
If the head of the KKK got together with the head of the skinheads to try to develop an educational system that would keep black Americans in a permanent underclass, they couldn’t come up with anything better than this idiot idea of teaching ebonics.
These feel-good liberals are STEALING the childrens’ futures. How will they ever get good jobs if they can’t speak proper English?
It’s pathetic.
D*!8n it! Didn’t we in California ban “bi-lingual” education? What do we, as a population, have to do to get it through the heads of these “educrats” that we want our children–ALL our children–to be taught to read, write, and SPEAK proper English?
What’s next? Normalizing “Spanglish?” “Chinglish?” “Viet-lish?”
My biggest worry–how do I keep that nonsense from infecting my school district?
–Denise
Ebonics is a legitimate dialect, but so what. There are many dialects in the U.S., yet we teach standard american english to everyone but black children.
The left is so lost.
Good points all. Those who authorized this abuse of tax $$ need to get tarred and feathered.
For those who don’t know, my son is deaf (from birth). I remember the days when I didn’t understand it (why he was born deaf), wished and prayed that he would be able to hear and talk like “normal” (I say normal very loosely these days). Thank the Lord my eyes were opened and I embraced my son’s deafness as a blessing. On a selfish level I am thankful he doesn’t have to be subjected to the garbage called music (no “fiddy cent” here) these days. Even as a deaf child, he tries to talk and says some basic words and phrases and can read.
As the post states, there is NO ONE to blame but the parents for this garbage called ebonics. Our ancestors went centuries only knowing broken English and trying to learn all they could (for those who could not get a formal education). Broken english, but they tried. There was no free education for them, not even a free book. There is no other word for this but LAZY.
It’s like a pig…
you can wash it, put perfume on it, dress it up, put a wig on it and no matter what…
it’s still a PIG!
G-A-R-B-A-G-E. I thought this ebonics thing was put to rest when the idiots in Oakland tried to introduce it in their school district a few years ago.
It’s a travesty what liberalism is doing to the black youth in this country. They do more to hold down urban black youth than they do to lift them. What drives me crazy is the lack of optimism brought to these kids. They tell them they need “special help” or need to learn a special way, which immediately takes away that individual belief for success and achievement at a young age when it’s most important. They dumb down these kids and that’s how they go around thinking of themselves. This is totally unacceptable in this day and age. Our country has a vast untapped natural black resource, and it’s not oil that I am talking about.
It’s about time that Republicans/conservatives bring a message of hope to the black community. Inspire them, tell them that this is the land of opportunity and that they can be whomever they choose to be. That we will fight to give them the education that ALL americans deserve. Someone has to bring a message of hope to them, instead of the message of being a dope. That is what the modern Democratic party has foistered on them and it has to end now, because a mind is truly a terrible thing to waste.
Of course that’s just my humble opinion,
Museum Curator
Amen Renee. My parents always said; “if God wanted me to hear, I would”.
The problem is God gave these kids the wherewithals but these stupid, but wise in their own eyes, fools insist on robbing the kids of their God-given talents in order to populate their God-hating plantations.
I can’t wait to hear Coz give these idiots the whatfor. I mean for a couple hundred bucks per class, the least they could do is introduce “Hooked on Phonics”.
Sadly, these kids will grow up to hang out at job centers in vain. While DS talks about this being the result of racism, he’s right only to the extent of the bigotry of low expectations inflicted by those in charge of educating them and not as he implies the bigotry of employers.
LaShawn,
The word “ebonics” is relatively new and did not exist 50 years ago. I know many black educators, especially one who has gone from teacher to principal to superintendent and he will not allow it in his school district. You have to learn standard english to get good jobs in most of the USA. TexMex is spoken by many people in Texas, but the educated speak English and often proper Spanish. Go to Mexico City and TexMex gets you nowhere. Bad English is bad English and keeps you out of good jobs everywhere. Make our students in every school system speak and write correct English. Liberals have almost ruined our public school system.
JMB
“These people need to take off their rose-colored, liberal, ‘we gotta help the darkies’ glasses…”
PurpleMD: When I was interviewed for a teaching job, I was told, very clearly, not to be condescending to the black “at risk” students, to treat them as I would any other students, etc. When I did that, when I used the same standards for the black “at risk” students that I had used for other students, I was called a racist and was shut out. It was enough for me to never vote for any lying demagogues ever again, or anyone who even slightly resembles such a person.
I still am thinking of writing something about it and getting it published somewhere because it was just unbelievably hypocritical and yet another example of the false accusations that occur against white people in the city–white people who truly want to help black young people get out of their miserable situations, without the attitude you’re talking about. Even writing about it now makes me mad that this goes on every day, and no one speaks up about it for fear of being called a “racist” or “insensitive” or some other lame pc label.
Only in California…….exactly.
LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) is already doing bilingual education for numerous Mexican immigrants.
I suppose it’s just a matter of time before we have two Spanish languages. —Since illegal aliens, and their children, don’t speak the standard, and grammatically correct, Castillian Spanish that I learned in high school.
Everything old (and stupid)is new again.
The liberals in the education establishment DID come up wih something even better than ebonics. It’s called whole language, which means no phonics. It doesn’t work well at all, and whole word methods statistically do more harm to those that are poor than those that are well off financially.
La Shawn,
You’re back and in great form.
If 25 years ago a situation comedy about a Black family appeared on TV where the characters could only speak “Ebonics,” I suspect that most “Black” groups would have wanted it banned like “Amos ‘n Andy.”
For once we agree!
Re: comment #9, Josh is right it is a legitimate dialect but that doesn’t mean it needs to be taught in schools unless shooting yourself in the foot is now considered a means of advancement, LOL.
My favorite quote from the newspaper article:
“Tillman hoped the new policy would increase the number of black students going to college and participating in advanced courses.”
Yeah, because all the college courses I took were taught in ebonics….and as a college professor, I teach in ebonics all the time.
Here’s Ebonics again! While I do not care for Ebonics (particularly the gutter version), need we all sound alike?
Must everyone, from everywhere, Black and White, sound like we’re from the Mid-Atlantic area to be considered speaking “Proper English”? I have heard, Black and White, attempt to speak what is called “Proper English” and it sounds strained and distasteful.
If a person is from, say, Oklahoma; I’m not going to look down my nose if they sound like it. Likewise, I won’t hold it against a Black who sounds “Black”. Consider Mr. T: “You bettah get that bad look off yo’ face ‘fore I knock it off”.
To me the point is not about different dialects. If everyone knows proper English, we can learn to understand the various dialects. If we’re around the area long enough, we will also pick up the vernacular.
But if each group is determined to have specific language needs, hardly any children outside the “norms” will learn. The public schools can’t provide all the special services that are “required” now…imagine expanding the number of children qualifying for services exponentially.
I still maintain that if slaves could learn to read and write with scraps of paper, a finger and dirt…then the average child in america…with lights, books, schools and no jobs can be taught. I don’t think we got dumber as we got further removed from slavery…
MJ don’t let the ignorance of the dependent and/or victim-mentality folks bother you. Many have believed the Great Society nonsense…so they’re very entitled, nothing is their fault…they are often the victims of their own poor decision making, in search of someone else to blame.
I work with kids in an office setting. It is always amazing to me how quickly children will try to rise to meet the standards set. I do not allow cursing (a sign of a lazy mind and a weak vocabulary), yelling (conviction comes from content not volume); “fine,” “good,” “bad” or “okay” as answers (overused…no meaning); hats come off, ladies sit first, doors are held open, firm handshakes with eye-contact are taught and complemented, etc.
I reward academic success and advancement…spending my own money to buy remote controlled cars, CD players, MP3 players, gift cards, dolls, etc. I do not reward anything below a C because you get C’s for showing up and trying. The kids have no problems…they seem to enjoy being able to show off their report cards, progress sheets with smilies, graduation pictures, etc.
Hello to all, esp. La Shawn and Andy:
I agree with MJ and Josh. Even if black English is a legitimate dialect (which I actually tend to think it is), it’s still not standard English—and everyone living in an English-speaking country ought to be able to speak standard English.
I suppose I should add that, yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as standard English. Granted, you can’t define it with mathematical precision, but it exists. The fact that there are variations of accent and vocabluary within stanard English doesn’t mean that there is no such thing as standard English(educated people in England and the US all speak, or at least write, standard English)
I happen to be in Germany right now. Most Germans actually speak two languages—their local dialects, which are not just German with a local accent, but pretty close to being distinct, but related languages—and then standard German. There’s a lot of pride in the dialects, but that pride doesn’t prevent anyone from recognizing High German as the standard speech.
Just my two cents.
Adrian
Ebonics has a place in history…as do do many other things that were simply bad ideas. Let’s learn from our mistakes (bad ideas) and try not to repeat or re-write history.
IMHO
Sounds like Bill Cosby has been wasting his time the last 2 years. He has said this was a step backwards; just more of the we are victims excuse making. Maybe he is an Oreo?
Adrian, I concur and good point about the Germans.
Chris Muir’s Day by Day found a “good” use for Ebonics.
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/?CartoonDate=07-19-2005
Saw it on Captain Ed’s.
Ebonics is another language like Kwanzaa is another religion. It’s recently man-made and self inflicted. It does not belong in the schools.
Wow, now I have to go back to school and learn ebonics
I have been working with a young lady I mentor, and she is incensed that a white english teacher for no perceivable legitimate reason is trying to introduce ‘black english’. Its nuts, and stupid, slang is slang.
Thanks, Andy.
I’s disgusted!
Let’s reintroduce ‘Massa’ why don’t we? I am really becoming distainful of California. Though, half of the teachers in DC use ebonics without an official curriculum, so maybe this is progress…
bleh…
And BTW, other liberals agree:
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2005/07/18/aka-lets-make-our-kids-dumber/
so please don’t get it twisted and try to claim otherwise.
I would pull my kids out of any school that attempted to teach them bad english. Kids hear more than enough ebonics in rap music. The need to learn to read, write and speak with proper English. Now, if they are sitting around playing bones with the boys, then it is perfectly ok to use ebonics. Otherwise, there is no place for it.
Ebonics is not laziness, that is stupid. But ’slang’ doesn’t need to be taught, as it is typically fadish and evolves rapidly. I can’t believe people are seriously considering….sigh….forget it…
This is why I homeschool.
A study by a journal of language arts concluded that students who can read and write English on grade level are 63% less likely to engage in criminal activity. The reason: students who aren’t on grade level will most likely act up in class and get kicked out in the long run. Instead of taking steps to rectify the situation, these purveyors of misinformation would rather lower the standard to making slang acceptable than do what is right. All these teachers and administrators need to do is set the expectations and guidelines from the beginning and then have the “stones” to stick by it. That is the model which works.
As for my friends who homeschool, if you have that ability, I don’t blame you. Your kids will perform better and have a deeper and more well rounded education. They may miss out on some experiences, but the homeschools down here in Texas are putting together athletic teams, debate squads, bands, orchestras and all the other things that public and private school kids do. The gap is narrowing on that front, and soon there will be little difference in what a kid can experience at home vs. in the public schools. Perhaps then the day of reckoning for public education will finally come.
Jewel…
“Excuse me”? Can you say that again please?
Dang that is getting old
Ref 40
Ebonics is not laziness, that is stupid.
Ok you are right… it’s stupid laziness
#26… where were you when I was single and languishing away in Silicon Valley, a lonely red pixel on a deep blue display?
#26
“I still maintain that if slaves could learn to read and write with scraps of paper, a finger and dirt…then the average child in america…with lights, books, schools and no jobs can be taught. I don’t think we got dumber as we got further removed from slavery…”
AMEN…we just got LAZY and UNACCOUNTABLE!
While young people are “learning” and using Ebonics in school and blaming the white man for everything under the sun, equally poor (and poorer) students in China are studying hard and coming to the US to get advanced degrees and then good jobs, while those in the inner city continue to complain.
Renee, it is not either, it is slang, the same thing your kid will speak when hanging out with his friends. The problem is when that is all someone knows how to speak.
MJ – Are you saying white people blame the white man too? They should.
Renee- you forgot to suck your teeth and roll your eyes.
“MJ – Are you saying white people blame the white man too? They should.”
Dell, are you advocating I become a white hater much in the mold of your concussed conservatives?
Renee, the same thing goes on in the Deaf world with the elites promoting ASL as an unique language instead of the slang that it is. This does nothing to help Deaf students learn english grammar properly and it shows in their reading and writing comprehension skills.
Years ago I was in England. It was very strange. I could no longer tell if someone was Black or White by just hearing them speak. You all know what I am talking about. It is not 100% but most people would be about 90%. I could not get over it.
Why, is it so different here. The only reason I can think of is just willfullness by Blacks. I will not speak like the Whites and they can’t make me. I have seen it Black kids making fun of another Black kid for ‘Speaking White’. Ebonics is just that thought carried to extream.
As has been said. If you can’t speak standard english, you will find getting a job or getting ahead very hard.
But Three cheers for Ebonics recommended by the KKK, Skinheads, and California School Administrators.
SCSI…I’m a red dot in the silicon valley…a melanated red dot…no less…very few of us around…
PurpleMD
…recently moved from the peninsula to the East Bay (Fremont like)
Dell: what do you mean?
Ebonics and Kwanzaa are both man-made garbage. You don’t need whites to put blacks down, if blacks want to do it so well themselves. Education is the great liberator, take advantage of it and progress. Speak ebonics and stay in the ghetto.
Shipwrecked – Every holiday is man made, so are they all garbage? I speak ebonics at times, and I can guarantee I am smarter than you, and don’t live in the ghetto, so what does that make me?
MJ – In your quote you went from “young people, learning ebonics, inner city” these are race neutral terms, indicating that it could be white folk and black folk as well, or asian, whatever, that “blame the white man”…so I asked the question as to whether you are saying white people blame ‘the white man’ too, as you didn’t identify race. By the way, I don’t think you know anything about black people to make such a silly statement as that.
Chris – BBC’s don’t hate whites they love them to the point where they want to pull an internal Michael Jackson. But if I was a white person, I would blame the white man too.
In my family, we used to speak a mix of French and English…so when is Franglais going to be a recognized language? How about Spanglish?
Ref #50
SLANG=LAZY
(I love how we throw a new word on something and think that automatically changes it’s meaning…the truth must really hurt)
It’s still a PIG (no matter how you dress it)
Hey looks like there is another Renee now…
Should I be Renn ! or Renee in VA…Hmmmm
I don’t speak Franglish
Dell, you should have been smart enough to recognize that shipwrecked was talking about Kwanza being yet another man-made religon related garbage. And to recognize he/she was referring to if all one can speak is ebonics, their getting out of the ghetto is next to slim.
So you can speak ebonics, so does June Ward (Leave It To Beaver’s TV mom) does that make ya’ll “multi-lingual”, if so good for you. Let me know when it expands real-world economic opportunities.
As for MJ’s characterization, I’d say Coz agrees with her and one doesn’t have to be black to understand the issues confonting them. About the only time the adage “If you have to ask, you wouldn’t understand” is true concerns Harley-Davidsons
I don’t speak ebonics, does that make you smarter than me or less wiser? Remember, one can ‘know’ everything there is to know and still be dumb as a doornail.
What is boils down to is that there is a time and place for everything and there is no place for Ebonics in the schools when English is the standard vernacular and is necessary to be successful in the United States.
What you speak at home or amongst your friends/family is of no consequence since I’m liable to slip into a bit of Ebonics or slang or whatever you want to call it, when I’m at home.
That’s the place for something like that. It’s not the place in my job as a Financial Analyst. Simple as that.
Amen Andy (loved that reference to Airplane…LOL)
The sad thing about these kinds of ‘let’s just give up’ initiatives is that they’re deeply, profoundly racist ideas masquerading as enlightenment. Racist, because of the effect they have: they couldn’t hold black citizens down any lower if they tried.
They’re also a clever way of disguising the incompetence of the educational system, a ‘no-fault’ innovation.
Educators and our educational system used to be much better. Ever hear Duke Ellington speak? And he received what was then a customary education.
Time to wake up from the ‘Matrix’.
Get rid of the NEA and these type of idiotic ideas would never come up. They say this stuff only because their jobs are protected by that corrupt organization.
I grew up with a lot of black people, there are black people in my family, my classmates have been black, many of my teachers and principals have been black, my bosses have been black, the churches I’ve gone to have been black, my co-workers have been black, my hometown and my current dwelling place have a large black population, the students I’ve taught are black, the media I’ve consumed and interacted with have been black, I have friends who are black, I work in a neighborhood with a lot of black people, my church is in a predominantly black area.
Thus, based on my experiences, including the reams of educational theory that I had to read to obtain an advanced degree in Education, I have heard from many people throughout my life, including those who had power over me, arguments based on the assumption that we live in a closed system, where the white man is on top, and the non-white people (especially non-white women) are at the bottom. A lot of politicians here make a good living and gain power from preaching from this world view, and I have consistently come against it, whether I have spoken to educated black people or uneducated black people.
My comment was working within that framework–the theory that we lived in a closed system, where we are trapped based on our background and/or skin color, where the individual is never considered. I posted it, assuming that people who read my comment would understand that prevalent idea that I was alluding to.
I also didn’t explain my departure from the non-specific “inner city” reference to the “white man” reference because La Shawn understands the fallacy of such a belief, so perhaps the latter part of my comment should be taken as tongue-in-cheek.
The point was that as long as people are complaining, blaming a fallacious belief for their failure, poor and disadvantaged immigrants are coming here and taking advantage of the gaps that exist from the whiners’ absence.
Now I will go and continue to interact with the black people I know, none of whom ever say anything that La Shawn says. Which is why I come to this blog.
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