Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: livius
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.

This is funny, the Oakland school board, (not any great authority) passed this resolution as an attempt to get foreign language pay for their black teachers. (As the spanish speaking teachers did until the state passed an "English first" law doing away with the bilingual program in California). BTW, the new program is doing well and former spanish speakers move into regular english classrooms after one year. A proper approach might be to take these ebonics speaking kids and give them nothing but intense English for a year. Might do the trick.

205 posted on 07/18/2005 11:27:16 AM PDT by KC_for_Freedom (Sailing the highways of America, and loving it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 192 | View Replies ]


To: KC_for_Freedom
A proper approach might be to take these ebonics speaking kids and give them nothing but intense English for a year.

Exactly. BTW, most of the Spanish-language component of the "bilingual" teachers spoke "Grandmother Spanish," that is, an uneducated Spanglish they had picked up at home as kids. Many of them could not even pass tests in formal Spanish.

219 posted on 07/18/2005 11:42:39 AM PDT by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 205 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson