FT>  MS>                "'We teach standard English,' said
FT>  MS>           Finger, Guilford's curriculum specialist for
FT>  MS>           communications skills.  'We simply believe in
FT>  MS>           and ask teachers to respect the language that
FT>  MS>           the students bring to school."
FT>  MS>      The school bureaucrat's remarks show how the public schools
FT>  MS> are desperately walking a fine line between seeking to avoid 
FT> losing
FT>  MS> credibility and public support while still staying politically
FT>  MS> correct and not offending groups claiming "victim" status
FT> 
FT> 
FT> Personally, I think Pat Finger is probably a very fine teacher 
    Pat Finger is not a _teacher_ at all.  She works out of the school 
district's central office building.  She is a bureaucrat.
FT> ...I also think that (like most American teachers) she's been caught 
FT> a bit off guard and could have made an even better response 
FT> reflecting 
FT> the district's position.  "... respect the language the students 
FT> bring 
FT> to school" is probably not as accurate as she would have liked it to 
FT> be.
FT> "... respect the cultures represented by the languages children bring 
FT> to school" would probably have fit more closely.  ...
    "Ebonics" has provoked a backlash among the public and even the solidly 
pro-public-school media that has not died down and won't die down.  The fact 
that the controversy won't die is because "Ebonics" is the last straw for 
many frustrated with public schools.
    As for "respect the cultures", can you imagine how the media would 
ridicule any school system that sought federal funds in order to bilingually 
teach kids who grew up speaking rural redneck English?  
FT> I think that the desire expressed by the Oakland School Board was 
FT> for just the opposite.  Effective education from a basis of love 
FT> and understanding, that's all.  ..
    Black columnists have blasted Oakland's "Ebonics" proposal as educational 
disaster for black kids.  Read Walter Williams' many articles on "black 
English" (and now) "Ebonics".  A black Chicago Tribune columnist who admits 
to having grown up speaking "Ebonics" blasted the whole idea of schools 
_accepting_ it as a legitimate language.
--- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS])
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