EBONICS UPDATE:
 
     By now we've all seen the jokes on the Internet about the new
course called "Hooked On Ebonics".  Here's the _reality_ of
an already-going "bilingual education" program in Ebonics as quoted
from the a 12/23 Chicago Tribune article:
               One of the largest Ebonics programs is
          the Language Development Program for
          African-American Students operated by the Los
          Angeles Unified School District. The
          six-year-old program, used at 31 schools,
          reaches about 25,000 African-American
          students.
               All the teachers in the participating
          schools receive extensive training in the
          history of the language and learn methods of
          reaching black students.
               The curriculum incorporates several
          methods used in bilingual education.
          Teachers often use graphics, maps and gestures
          to get their point across, LeMoine said,
          because students speaking Ebonics often cannot
          fully understand lessons in which standard
          English is used.
               In addition, the students are instructed
          in the structure of Ebonics, learning later to
          translate the dialect into standard phrases.
     The Chicago Tribune article quoted administrators who claim
the program "works", but what does it mean to say an Ebonics
program "works"?  Does that mean that student achievement is up, or
does it mean that principals and teachers believe student self-
esteem is up?
               Officials at Audubon Middle School, who
          have been using the approach for two years,
          assert that the program works.
               "We try to convey to the students that
          they don't have to be embarrassed when grandma
          speaks," Principal Travis Kiel said.
               "But they need to be able to speak
          standard English when they enter the real
          world."
     Los Angeles schools are spending $120 per student yearly to
run the Ebonics program (counting only local funds), making it an
expensive program when compared to what $120 per student yearly
would buy in textbooks, library books, computers, or software.
Los Angeles schools hope that Oakland will succeed in establishing
a precedent for getting Ebonics programs federally funded for this
reason:
               However,  Sid Thompson, superintendent of
          the Los Angeles Unified School District,
          applauded the Oakland board's decision.
               "We are encouraged by what Oakland is
          doing," Thompson said. "If someone could
          figure out a way we could (get federal funding
          to teach Ebonics), boy, we'd be happy with
          that."
               Thompson added that the Los Angeles
          school district spends $3 million of its own
          money for an Ebonics program for 25,000 black
          students.
 
 
 
--- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS])
---------------