Students Hooked on 'Ebonics' Are Being Groomed for Failure

INSIGHT magazine ^ | June 3, 2002 | Nicholas Stix

[Future Snake Eater]

Ebonics is like perpetual literal welfare.

Wow. Can we make a bumper sticker out of that? I love it!

[Future Snake Eater]

Hooooly crap, that's just about the funniest thing EVER!

[Calvin Locke]

"Experts" tell us that ebonics is three things: 1) an African language that is genetically passed on among blacks;

And where on the chromosome bees that gene?

Vague recollections of Psych 1. But, to the best of my memory:

Frederick the Great wanted to find out what the "natural" language of humans was - French or German,
or heaven forbid, English. Had a couple of babies isolated from all language, going so far as to remove
the tongues from the nannies. Years pass...

Naturally, ole' Fred got what he didn't expect: Ebonics, I mean gibberish.

More nuture than nature, I surmise.

[Jhoffa_]

Well, hey.

That's what affirmative Action is for..

[Calvin Locke]

IIRC, this started out as an attempt to get more "non-english speaking" federal $$$ for Oakland. Now, it
appears that they want federal tax dollars to fund yet another totally useless "industry".

[tdadams]

I think you're being a captious little blowhard who's picking a fight because he's got nothing more exciting in his life. Grow up. I'm making light conversation and you're challenging me to a duel. I just don't care enough to entertain you.

[tdadams]

Maybe I missed the "y'all" and the "fixin' to" in the Federalist Papers, but then I haven't read them word for word.

[Myrddin]

Why can't the "Miss Ebonics" pageant get participants from all 50 states? It seems they have a problem wearing the banner "Idaho".

[Myrddin]

In Ireland, it was a crime for the irish to have or read books.

The English tried to destroy the Welsh language in a similar fashion. The Welsh struck back. They took the 1588 translation of the Holy Bible and taught their children to read and write Welsh. They only had a single day off each week, so this teaching occurred in "SUNDAY SCHOOL". Preservation of the language and religious instruction were combined to meet the objective.

[Ole Okie]

The only thing that ebonics prepares a kid for is a career in rap music.

Oh, heaven forfend!

I'm so sick of listening to the boom cars around here broadcasting rap wheresoever you go at about 120 db. Noise pollution of the worst sort.

And now McDonald's ads (at least around Atlanta) are in rap. That kills my appetite for anything with Mack on it.

[Texan5]

I stand proud of my language skills AND my barbecue, (said with my Texas accent).

[FormerLurker]

They not be gettin' good jobs when they be graduatin'.

Yeah they be gettin them jobs. Yo forgit 'bout qotas an afirmitiv acton!

[Amelia]

Your point about the lack of competence of the teachers is well taken. Although most of us can recall teachers who stood out as excellent, inspiring, and even mentors, most teachers are not recruited from the most talented students in our most competitive colleges and universities.

I still think more of us should stop complaining about the schools and get into the schools. There's a teacher shortage right now, and it's becoming easier to get certified (at least in Georgia) if one already has a college degree.

The pay and working conditions don't equal those in many more "prestigious" careers, but if all the good students choose other jobs, only the second-rate students are left to teach.

Although society pays lip service to education, and it is essential to success...

Society says education is important, but at the same time denigrates teachers.....

[SerpentDove]

>>Now can you get ready for that? <<

Clearly, that is supposed to read, "Now can yall get ready for dat?"

Must be a typo.

[Amelia]

ex con is correct.

[CatoRenasci]

You make good points, but historically, in the US, teaching has always been an occupation strangely regarded. Important, given all of the Puritan and other colonists early emphasis on education, but not terribly prestigious. The reasons for this are many, in part because of the traditional English suspicion of things intellectual - smelling of the lamp is the old saw, in part because it was seen as something a young man (or young woman later) without independent means could do at the outset of his career after his own schooling. By the mid-19th century, while every town sought to establish common public schools, the school and its master/marm were paid only with what locally was raised in taxes or fees, often not much. Hence the field often did not attract the sort of teachers calculated to raise the prestige of the job. The only teachers in America who ever had social prestige were university professors up through the 1950s. Many of them were younger sons of the upper class, with some independent means, hence the low pay was no deterent, and their class standing did not depend on their positions, rather their status enhanced the status of the position. That changed again in the 1950s - 1970's as the influx of boomers saw the hiring of many who got their credentials on the GI Bill from WWII, men and women who didn't fit the mold and who were careerists.

[ffrancone]

Spoken like a true deconstructionist.