Ebonics Be Back In Bidness

Is it just me or does anyone else feel as though we are moon walking as a race. Just as I think we are making progress and moving ahead, wham here comes some idiotic thinking that just causes me to scratch my head.

I just read the latest Worldnet Daily article on Ebonics http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45334 in which a Southern California school district wants to approve the dialect as curriculum in their schools. The pilot program introduced by the San Bernardino Board of Education is known as the Students Accumulating New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishment Initiative, and has already been implemented in 2 schools in the district. The length of the name alone should tell us something.

Cal State SB sociology professor Mary Texeira says that, "Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe. For many of these students Ebonics is their language and it should not be considered a foreign language. These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language." I guess Ms. Texeira must have gotten her information from the Oakland, CA school board who in 1996 recognized Ebonics as a separate language. But what is it Mary, a foreign language or not? Did she read or hear what she just said? In the same breath she says "it should not be considerd a foreign language" and "should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language."

Texeira believes that the program will be beneficial to students. Benficial how Mary? Name me one American or foreign corporation that discusses business in Ebonics. Name me one tech manual that is written in Ebonics. Where is the benefit?

I wonder if Ms. Texeira would also want to introduce Cajun into the Louisianna curriculum. Or Pigeon into the Hawaiian curriculum? This is just plain silliness masquerading as intelligence.

The only sensical thing Ms. Texeira says is that "these students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language." That is if you mean kids who speak only in Ebonics should be taught common and proper English.

I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma and we have a growing Russian population. The Russian kids go to our schools, learn English and get jobs speaking English, not Russian. They can speak Russian at home, if their families wish. The same has been true of Vietnamese, and other Asian children for over a generation and they have excelled, not in their native tongues, but in English. Contrast this with ethnic groups, who are encouraged to hold onto to their native tongue. T hose who do, do not succeed while those who are pushed to learn English do succeed.

This is the height of liberal racism, to suggest that ghetto English is a foreign language and that we should not expect those kids to learn common English. Try telling that to any Caucasian, East Indian, Asian or even African parents living in the U.S. and they will laugh at you. That shows just how silly this notion is.

Need I say more?