Ebonics suggested for district

San Bernardino County Sun ^ | 17 July 2005 | Irma Lemus

[45Auto]

Incorporating Ebonics into a new school policy that targets black students, the lowest-achieving group in the San Bernardino City Unified School District, may provide students a more well-rounded curriculum, said a local sociologist.

The goal of the district's policy is to improve black students' academic performance by keeping them interested in school. Compared with other racial groups in the district, black students go to college the least and have the most dropouts and suspensions.

Blacks make up the second largest racial group in the district, trailing Latinos.

A pilot of the policy, known as the Students Accumulating New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishment Initiative, has been implemented at two city schools.

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.'

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).'

Beginning in the 2005-06 school year, teachers will receive training on black culture and customs. District curriculum will now include information on the historical, cultural and social impact of blacks in society. Although the program is aimed at black students, other students can choose to participate.

The pilot program at Rio Vista Elementary and King Middle schools focuses on second-, fourth- and seventh-grade classes. District officials hope to train teachers from other schools using the program as a model.

Board member Danny Tillman, who pushed for the policy, said that full implementation of the program at all schools may take years, but the pilot program is a beginning.

"At every step we will see positive results,' Tillman said.

Tillman hoped the new policy would increase the number of black students going to college and participating in advanced courses.

Teresa Parra, board vice president, said she worried the new program would have an adverse effect.

"I'm afraid that now that we have this the Hispanic community, our largest population, will say, 'We want something for us.' Next we'll have the Asian community and the Jewish community (asking for their own programs). When will it end?'

Parra said the district should focus on helping all students who are at risk.

"I've always thought that we should provide students support based on their needs and not on their race,' Parra said.

Tillman disagreed with Parra, saying programs that help Latinos already exist in the district. He cited the district's English- as-a-second-language program.

Texeira urged people not be quick to judge the new program as socially exclusive. She said people need to be open to the program.

"Everybody has prejudices, but we must all learn to control that behavior,' Texeira said. She said a child's self confidence is tied to his or her cultural identity.

She compared the low performance of black students to starvation. "How can you be angry when you feed a family of starving children?'

Ratibu Jacocks, a member of the Westside Action Group, a coalition of black activists, said they are working with the district to ensure the policy is implemented appropriately.

"This isn't a feel-good policy. This is the real thing,' Jacocks said.

Jacocks said he didn't believe the new policy would create animosity. He said he welcomed the idea of other ethnic groups pushing for their own programs.

"When you are doing what's right, others will follow,' Jacocks said. "We have led the way before the civil-rights movement opened the door for women's rights and other movements.'

[RightWingAtheist]

Yo buss dis. Students Accumulatin New noin Optimizin Futua Accomplishment Initiative Sheeit!

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Radical thought, I suppose. But nonetheless, I am curious.

[RightWingAtheist]

Yo buss dis. I think all replies to dis tread should be run trough de ebonics wrapper befo dey be posted. It's only right in case some interested parties be readin an' need to understan' what we be sayin. Biyatch. Sheeit!

[bannie]

Texeira said research has shown that students learn better when they fully comprehend the language they are being taught in.

Hm. Should be:

"...they fully comprehend the language in which they are being taught.

[Fred Hayek]

"They can't learn because they live in the inner city and are minoritys"

This was the exact view promulgated at Newark Central High School (NJ) in the 1970's. And if a student there really tried to learn something:
"Oreo cookie"
"Uncle Tom"
"Race Traitor"
"White MF"
From the bloody "faculty"!

[bannie]

Yep...It's a case of not letting them in on the language of success.

[RightWingAtheist]

Wait, wait. Here's the same post again, after first being run through the Ebonics Translator, and then the Jive Dialectizer:

Yo buss dis. ah' dink all replies t'dis tread should be run trough de ebonics wrappuh' befo dey be posted. It's only right in case some interested parties be eyeballin an' need t'understan' whut we be sayin. 'S coo', bro. Biyatch. Lop some boogie. Sheeit! Right on!

[NerdDad]

"But I will demand excellence from my children, and those around me -- in spite of the moonbats."

Good for you.

Don't feel alone or like it is a strictly African-American problem. We live in Northeast MS where our boys attend the 58% black public schools. It is a constant battle to get our boys to spit the mush out, enunciate and drop the nonsense words from their vocabulary. And I require the same from any young person with whom I speak.

I've spent a lifetime with a shotgun or typewriter banging in my ears. I admit that my hearing is not nearly what it once was. I also admit to being a slow-talking Texan. As I approach 50, both these things are taking a toll on my ability to understand a person who mumbles and runs words together.

I love working with the high school band kids and running concession stands both at the school and a local flea market. I force these kids (adults too) to to repeat themselves constantly until they slow down, speak up, and don't use nonsense words. I'm sure it frustrates them but it also gives me an occasional opportunity explain that they will one day be expected to speak clearly and respectfully to get a job. Maybe they won't be asking an old, fat, white guy like me for that job, but they will be speaking to someone who will make a decision about whether they get a better opportunity based not only on their skill but on their ability to express themselves.

In nearly 7 years volunteering with the high school, I've had only one negative response from a parent. That parent has always been a jerk, from the days when he went to school with my wife. His child has learned well from his father's example. I pity them and I pray that something will happen to break that cycle before the next generation.

[RightWingAtheist]

What was it? It got deleted before I could read it.

[trillabodilla]

I find this extremely racist toward the students. They're basically saying the poor blacks are too dumb to learn proper English.

Where's the outrage?

[bannie]

HAHA!

Yo buss dis. hoebug, fly away home! yo crib be on fire: yo crum snachas will burn! Sheeit!

THAT used to be: "Laydbug, fly away home! Your house is on fire: Your children will burn!"

A LADYbug is a HOEbug!

[Heyworth]

"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.'

As a black friend of mine pointed out, shaking his head over the whole Ebonics thing, "I've never met a black person who couldn't understand what they're saying on TV."

[trillabodilla]

Remember the movie "Airplane" where the nun knew "jive" and was an interpreter? They translated it on the screen in subtitles. That was so funny!

[wardaddy]

how incredibly stupid

[OB1kNOb]

"I be thinkin that Ebonics be stupid" -Spike Lee

[radiohead]

I don't want to repeat everything you said, but you are right on. I despair sometimes, hearing blacks complain for years on end about how they can't succeed in this country. (I'm black; they talk to me) : ) Meanwhile, newcomers start small businesses, often in crime-ridden, poor black neighborhoods where no one else would come in.

You should hear blacks talk about the 'secret money' the Koreans or other internationals get when they come to this country. It's useless to tell them about the SBA (whose funds are available to legal immigrants) or the Asian family banks where family members pool their resources so others can open businesses, etc. To hear the average black tell it, the US govt is meeting these people at the airport w/a big check. Meanwhile, the Korean grocer in my old Philly neighborhood worked 7 days a week and slept in the store during snow storms so he could be open when other stores were closed. It takes hard work, not a handout from the government, and many blacks never make the connection.

Why the black churches haven't set up something similar to the Asian family banks is beyond me. There could be black-owned businesses in every black neighborhood if that's what they really wanted.

I have several advanced degrees and am often the only black person at conferences, classes, etc. I fail to see how teaching Ebonics is going to produce more black lawyers or PhDs or anything else except more welfare recipients.

[MindBender26]

>No half measures. All blacks must be taught using Ebonics, no exceptions.

You racist pig, you.

We cannot segregate students by race. All students, Black, White, Latino, Oriental, Native American; all must be taught to speak Ebonics.

For example "I be making par on that 17th MF hole or I be takin' my clubs and my hoopie back to the crib for a week!"

or

"He be da head Professor at this here college? Where he stay? Who be his ho? The honkey bitch or the sista who be passin'?"

[OB1kNOb]

From Joe Bob's Drive In:.........;-)

"Because of my special skills, I could also be employed as a translator of Ebonics into Redneck. For example, we begin with a simple Ebonic phrase: "Yall don be messin wif me." First we translate that into traditional, outmoded, old-fogey WHITE English: "All of you are requested to cease being aggressive." Now we take THAT sentence and translate it into a THIRD language, spoken mainly in Appalachia, the Deep South and East Texas: "Yall don be messin wif me."

The main difference between the Ebonic sentence and the Hillbilly translation is that, in Hillbilly, there is a full expectoration between the words "messin" and "wif." So the sentence actually SOUNDS like this: "Yall don be messin (hock one up and spit it out) wif me." The Oakland school board is absolutely right. This has opened up a whole new field of serious academic investigation. Ebonians unite, for your right to jive! "

[reagan_fanatic]

I need a m** f** bambulance

[Liz]

Nice going.