Re[2]: Ebonics

[Don Smith <dsmith -at- ACCESSBEYOND -dot- COM>]

     John Kohl wrote:

     "Some people apparently feel that "Ebonics" is just a ploy that
     educators are using to get additional government funding.  Allegedly,
     Ebonics proponents want speakers of Black English to be classified as
     non-native speakers of English.  Then the school districts could get
     ESL (English as a Second Language) funding, presumably to devote more
     resources to teaching "standard English" to those Black English
     speakers.  Well, I wouldn't judge educators harshly for trying to get
     more money in order to better serve their student population.  In my
     days as a teaching assistant, I taught many students who were
     extremely bright, but who were not doing well academically, mainly
     because they had not mastered the standard American-English dialect.
     If more teachers recognized the differences between the two dialects
     rather than just dismissing one dialect as incorrect and
     ungrammatical, they'd be better able to teach students to speak/write
     the standard dialect."

     Your kidding, aren't you, John? Putting us on?

     I read this item in the Washington Post this morning. Goof Grief!

     I taught High School for 17, so I too understand the problems,
     but.....!

     It's time that students mesure up to the standards and the standards
     do not sink to the students level. We have been doing just that since
     about the 1980's.

     Your are kidding, aren't you John?

     Don Smith - MOO