These articles were interesting to me because I deal with these issues on a daily basis. In my own classroom, I have fought the battle all year against “mines’” and ‘”gots”. My classroom is comprised of African American and Hispanics who struggle with the same language issues. What puzzles me is that while I expect a student learning a second language to struggle with verb tense agreement and overgeneralization of rules like adding -ed and -s, my African American students should not. They have had exposure and opportunities to learn the language that my Hispanic students have not. While Delpit suggests that the issue is teachers don’t care enough and thus students are not interested in learning new speech patterns, I have a hard time believing that is true of the whole nation. I would argue that learning formal speech patterns is more difficult than learning informal ones and that my student’s speech is governed by less rules than what Delpit refers to as Queen’s English. I do hear some patterns but I doubt it would qualify as Ebonics. It’s more a hodgepodge of all of the different language influences here in the South.
It was interesting to me to here Michelle Obama speak of being labeled white for her manner of speech. I have always thought the notion that the Queen’s English, what most would consider proper English, was a part of white culture as very detrimental to minorities. Right or wrong it is the accepted language of the professional world and perceived as a sign of education and intelligence.
What also struck me is what the newscaster said in this same newscast. It is tricky to walk that line between valuing kids, who they are and where they come from and educating them to face the word beyond their own culture. We all have to code switch. We all have formal and informal registers. Dowdy talks about the tension between home language and work language. Code switching is not unique to minorities, but perhaps the greater the divide between the two languages the greater the tension to reconcile the two.
Although I am not familiar with the history of Trinidad, I know that there are many variations on the English language and that while some are considered legitimate, others are not. Nor am I familiar enough with what rules determine a language’s acceptance to judge whether Ebonics is a language of its own. Regardless of what the linguists, say I doubt that the professional world will be accepting of someone who speaks it.
I do have to point out that Delpit’s comments on page 41 that “…Children are taught through worksheets or text books that make no reference to their lived experience. Teachers seldom know much about the children’s lives and either don’t know how or aren’t willing to connect instruction to issues that matter to students, their families, and their community. Nowhere is the student’s very personhood acknowledged or celebrated.” And then again on 43, “Almost no one in the school ever listens to them…” are sweeping generalizations that I do not believe characterize myself or my school. It is all well and good to look from the outside in and tell teachers what they are doing wrong, but clearly she has never been in a classroom with the full weight of a teacher’s responsibilities, nor does she comprehend that curriculum is not a teacher’s choice but dictated by the state’s standards, and that our time is severely limited by other responsibilities.
-Rebecca Ashby
Comments (6)
It is our responsibility as teachers to use correct grammer and proper English while instructing. If a child were to use slang on the 4th grade writing test, how would it be graded? Whose fault would it be if a child continually used double negatives and nonsense words? Well, like you said, it would be ours. We are truly responsible by our SCOS to instruct proper dialect. It is not our choice in the classroom but our state's.
Posted by Maria Blevins | June 5, 2010 2:58 PM
Posted on June 5, 2010 14:58
I took offense to those statements in her article. I have looped with my kids ( this is the second time I have done this) and I feel that I know my students very well. When I am planning novels and literature projects I do consider what their likes and interests are. Then I use that to create projects. For example I know that my students are very motivated by music. After reading Tuck Everlasting I had them create a soundtrack to correlate to the book and tell me why it belongs there and where it fits in. I could see where high school teachers may struggle with this if they have their children only 18 weeks. I would hope that more teachers do get to know their students.
Amy Reep
Posted by Amy Reep | June 6, 2010 4:58 PM
Posted on June 6, 2010 16:58
I believe that we are responsible for teaching our students to use our language correctly. I think the issue with some African American students is their exposure to language at home. I have also noticed that it is not only African American that say "mines" and "gots". We as teachers can only do so much for our students. Much of what they learn comes from their home and if their parents use incorrect phrases, the students will also. I think that as children age and become more educated they will begin to change the way they use language. We just have to make sure to keep doing all we can do in the hopes that this occurs.
Posted by Erin Whisnant | June 7, 2010 8:39 PM
Posted on June 7, 2010 20:39
I was also offended by the generalizations made by Delpit. I was offended by the fact that she is so sure teachers do not care about their students and don't mind embarrasing them by picking out what by some would be considered the "wrong" way to say something. I learned a long time ago that a person's words and voice, especially children, are very precious things. When you belittle a child by criticising what they have to say or how they may be saying it, you are attacking the outward expression of who they are inide. I hope when other people read these words by Delpit they were not influenced make those same generalizations about us as educators.
Posted by Marcia Smith | June 9, 2010 4:47 PM
Posted on June 9, 2010 16:47
I can understand the frustration that you see in Deplit's generalizations. I think often teachers try to attend to all of their students' needs, but there are sometimes especially in dealing with larger numbers of students (middle and high school) we can miss the boat. I know with my 78 different students in my language arts classes it is hit or miss. I try to listen to them all, but I work with so many personalities and diversities some probably do feel like that. While that upsets me, we must keep in mind that we must do the best we can. And if we know in our heart we've tried to do all we can to support that child and develop their language skills we should accept it. From classroom to classroom it changes depending on the students and the teacher. We are pushed and prodded by the demands of the SCOS. I know myself that I have had to limit some of those self-exploration projects to cope with adminstrative testing demands. I think we also need to keep in mind that for the large number of us who do listen to the children there are also a lot of teachers who merely perform their duties neglecting the child's culture or critcizing them. I think what Delpit is trying to say might be that there should be a balance in place for supporting student's language while teaching proper English usage. We shouldn't be driven by those demands as teachers and recognize that even if our state's demands pressure us to limit those opportunities, we must do what is best for our students. We must provide the outlet for them to express themselves with their own voices through journaling and self chosen projects. There is a time and place for appropriate grammer and there is also a time to just speak as you are. I think that we should address this with our students letting them know in different contexts and with different audiences expectations change. I'm not sure that the language we hear some of our African American students speak is truly ebonics, but that is how they speak at home. That is their environment and language. We must recognize the fact that if we constantly criticize their speech, we criticize their culture. Teacher's have to be sensitive when addressing these issues. In poetry, journals, and letters of an informal nature there own language is more appropriate where they feel comfortable. In formal assignments, we should tread lightly and pick a few grammatical issues to work on at a time so not to overwhelm them. With one on one time with our students we could probably make more progress, but we are only human and there is only so much time in a day.
Posted by Amy Hardister | July 1, 2010 8:36 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 20:36
I can understand the frustration that you see in Deplit's generalizations. I think often teachers try to attend to all of their students' needs, but there are sometimes especially in dealing with larger numbers of students (middle and high school) we can miss the boat. I know with my 78 different students in my language arts classes it is hit or miss. I try to listen to them all, but I work with so many personalities and diversities some probably do feel like that. While that upsets me, we must keep in mind that we must do the best we can. And if we know in our heart we've tried to do all we can to support that child and develop their language skills we should accept it. From classroom to classroom it changes depending on the students and the teacher. We are pushed and prodded by the demands of the SCOS. I know myself that I have had to limit some of those self-exploration projects to cope with adminstrative testing demands. I think we also need to keep in mind that for the large number of us who do listen to the children there are also a lot of teachers who merely perform their duties neglecting the child's culture or critcizing them. I think what Delpit is trying to say might be that there should be a balance in place for supporting student's language while teaching proper English usage. We shouldn't be driven by those demands as teachers and recognize that even if our state's demands pressure us to limit those opportunities, we must do what is best for our students. We must provide the outlet for them to express themselves with their own voices through journaling and self chosen projects. There is a time and place for appropriate grammer and there is also a time to just speak as you are. I think that we should address this with our students letting them know in different contexts and with different audiences expectations change. I'm not sure that the language we hear some of our African American students speak is truly ebonics, but that is how they speak at home. That is their environment and language. We must recognize the fact that if we constantly criticize their speech, we criticize their culture. Teacher's have to be sensitive when addressing these issues. In poetry, journals, and letters of an informal nature their own dialectal language is more appropriate where they feel comfortable. In formal assignments, we should tread lightly and pick a few grammatical issues to work on at a time so not to overwhelm them. With one on one time with our students we could probably make more progress, but we are only human and there is only so much time in a day.
Posted by Amy Hardister | July 1, 2010 8:37 PM
Posted on July 1, 2010 20:37