http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~2969790,00.html Ebonics suggested for district By Irma Lemus Staff Writer SAN BERNARDINO 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.' _______________ Hats off to the school board if grades improve. There's so much a teacher can do these days that getting students interested should also be the parent's responsibility.... This is a wrong headed move and has nothing to do with civil rights.
Teaching it like students who speak a foreign language wouldn't mean teaching Ebonics to students, and depending on the program they used, none of the subject matter would be taught in Ebonics either. Either way the goal is to teach children academic English. Whatever works best for the population at those schools is what needs to be done.
That would assume the parents were teaching their kids ebonics as the primary language while being grossly inadequate at speaking English. Grammar might be a pain to learn, but I think someone is pulling a fast one if students can't learn it in colloquial English.
Most of the time children who speak Ebonics are having it taught as a primary langauge. In fact that is all anyone around them speaks. Ebonics is different from slang English, and it does have its own correct and incorrect grammar. It isn't as if Ebonics doesn't have that. But because that is spoken in Child's away from community so much, the student needs to have academic English modeled for him at school, as much as possible. Classifying Ebonics as a second language in California would actually ensure that the student got more English instruction and not less. In elementary school in addition to the standard English Arts curriculum he would have designated time each day to learning academic language.
Will somebody please give a couple of examples where Ebonics is written in both correct and incorrect grammar, with English as a reference?
Since "Ebonics as First Language-ers" are so boxed off from reality, I guess they need translators to watch TV, and they can't read. That's the extent to how dumb they're playing if English is so foreign. Even if current education is intimidating, this type of accomodation is not the answer.
Language is incredibly important to an individual's success. While their intentions may be good, teaching children the wrong way to speak is very dangerous. Sure, some people like Deion Sanders and Stephen A Smith can get away with saying stuff like "let me aks you a question" or "that's what he do", but in the professional world away from sports, improper use of language is typically interpreted as ignorance. Right or wrong, that's the truth.
I agree with you 100% (about time, eh?) IMHO, teaching Ebonics in the classroom as a substitute for English puts students at a disadvantage that will be extremely hard to overcome when they try to get a job in the real world.
I say "hell naw" to ebonics in school. If they teach in ebonics in Cali, they should teach in appalachian in Virginia.
No, it isn't. It's slang. Period. That's not my opinion, it's a fact. Is 'krunk' listed in Websters Dictionary?
Seems to me that ebonics doesn't need to be taught in school. Blacks are already learning it just fine. In instances such as the one you are describing, should that job appeal to someone, it would benefit them to not only know ebonics, but also to know proper English. After all, how many quality jobs out there are so insular that all interactions are in ebonics? This would include interactions with lenders, suppliers, vendors, IT support, all customers, landlords, consultants, legal professionals, insurers, etc. I would say that the percentage of jobs that fit this criteria are incredibly tiny, if not ZERO.
I am a little confused. From this statement in the article it sounds as if subject matter would be taught in ebonics. So I don't really see where it is saying the teachers are going to learn ebonics to better teach their students English. I guess the younger classes will be in ebonics and then they will phase it out as the studens get older so that by senior year they should be fluent in English? I also disagree that ebonics is a foreign language. It is a cultural speak that has evolved from slang and regional colloquialisms. It is still english, just with the grammar switched around at times. As such, I would think it sufficient to have the teachers know what to expect with ebonics but reinforce the proper English continually. If you go out to the backwoods of Mississippi you will find a bunch of white people that speak a form of Ebonics, as well. They just don't think about it. So I don't really see this as a race thing, but an education thing. Poor whites and poor blacks in the South developed similarly. I should add, however, that I am separating the Gullah people in the Carolina/Georgia coast because they truly speak a hybrid/different language.
Attendant: Can I get you something? Jiveman #2: S'mo fo butter layin' to the bone. Jackin' me up. Tightly. Attendant: I'm sorry I don't understand. Jiveman #1: Cutty say he cant hang. Woman : Oh stewardess, I speak jive. Attendant: Ohhhh, good. Woman : He said that he's in great pain and he wants to know if you can help him. Attendant: Would you tell him to just relax and I'll be back as soon as I can with some medicine. Woman : Jus' hang loose blooood. She goonna catch up on the`rebound a de medcide. Jiveman #2: What it is big mamma, my mamma didn't raise no dummy, I dug her rap. Woman : Cut me som' slac' jak! Chump don wan no help, chump don git no help. Jive ass dude don got no brains anyhow.
I don't get how boat people from Vietnam can speak better english than these kids? They were born here and educated with other non-black students in the same system who apparently don't have this problem of speaking english. Their parents are total failures.
What is so difficult about learning a different dialect in school? In China there are thousands of different speaking dialects, many of them sound just like foreign language to other Chinese from different regions. However, in schools everyone learns the mandarin, it was not that diffcult to teach the young kids. Oh, when I first came here, I didn't know how to get to bathroom in school and went to school on school holiday becauase I couldn't understand the teacher. I am sure these kids were in better shape than me when it come to understanding English.
That's not Ebonics, that's Jive talk, it's a dead language. BTW, it's a scene from teh movie Airplane. Ebonics to me is no different that 1337 (leet) speak. Do we have to teach kids who grew up using the internet in a different language? "7h3n 7h3 µn173Ð $7473$ pwn3Ð J4p4n w17h 4 nµ(£34r b0mb." (The United states dropped a nuclear bomb on Japan."
