Hat tip Frontpage Magazine
I am cross-posting an article running in Frontpage Magazine by Richard Cravatts, PhD, President Emeritus of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. In this article Cravatts takes issue with the Conference on College Composition and Communication (an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English), who issued a set of demands for "Black Linguistic Justice", as well as a certain professor at the University of Washington at Tacoma named Isao Inoue. These kind folks all argue that we should do away with trying to force standard English on black kids and basically let them drift through school relying on their non-standard vernacular (Many refer to it as Black English Vernacular).
Mr Cravatts article is posted below.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/race-bottom-language-standards-richard-l-cravatts/
Fousesquawk comment:
I note that Prof. Inoue himself speaks in standard English.
Having lived around the world, having learned a few languages, and having taught English to foreign students for 18 years at UC Irvine, I have come to appreciate standard English. To succeed, a person needs to be able to speak the standard variety of their language-no matter the country-no matter the language. To deny standard English to black kids is as racist as it gets. To keep black kids using their non-standard vernacular is a guaranteed recipe for failure. We are fully capable of using both standard and non-standard English, and most people engage in code-switching in their daily lives, but to be successful, we need to be able to use standard English. The English language, particularly standard English, is not the property of white people. It belongs to anyone who cares to learn it.
For these nitwits, who should know better, to advocate suppressing standard English shows just how rotten the whole educational system has become. What is linguistic justice in deliberately not teaching black kids in school to speak standard English?
At the same time, these teaching "professionals" argue that when it comes to grammar, it should not apply to black students. This is absurd and can only be based on some belief that black students are mentally inferior and simply incapable of being taught standard English with the accompanying grammar rules. The idea of education is being turned upside down.
This is not to condemn non-standard varieties of any language. In linguistic terms, they are considered as valid means of communication. There are also regional varieties of languages, such as Sicilian in Italy. Sicilian is recognized, but at the same time, Sicilians recognize that if they are going to be successful and communicate with people in other parts of Italy, they must learn standard Italian. There was a time, say a hundred or so years ago, when Italy was a just conglomeration of dialects like Sicilian, Napolitano, Milanese, etc. With the improvement in education and advent of television, among other factors, Italy united its people in terms of language with standard Italian as the starting point. The dialects are still there, but the coin of the realm is, rightfully, standard Italian. I could go on forever with other countries.
Finally, these so-called teachers should know better than anyone that in any country-including the US- the standard language is considered the language of the university. As students go through higher education, they become used to speaking the standard. If you don't believe me just strike up a conversation with a college-educated black person.
The KKK could not have dreamed of a more effective way to keep our black population down.
Well-said. While it's a good thing to recognize that African American Vernacular isn't simply "bad English", the reality of the situation is that not being able to speak standard American English is going to hold you back in this country. (And it's not like African Americans are the only ones who have their own dialect.)
ReplyDeleteI am in favor of teachers being educated in regards to non-standard versions of the language so they can better communicate with their students (which will make it easier for the students to learn the standard English). I also think that they need to understand that it IS a legitimate dialect (which you acknowledge).
We can bemoan the reasons why there is such a thing as a "standard" dialect of any language and how that gets decided. I think that I would agree that the reasons are often arbitrary and favor the most powerful people. But it's one of those "it is what it is" situations and pretending like it's not is not going to change it. Yes, it's not fair that a black kid growing up in the inner city has to learn a dialect that's different from what he uses at home whereas a white suburban kid can pretty much speak the same way. But to suggest that they can't learn standard English? That's an even bigger problem.
Thank you. It may not be fair that Parisian, for example, is the French standard, but it is what it is, and everyone has to deal with that fact. The bottom line is that any wacko idea that keeps black kids from the inner city learning to speak standard English is extremely harmful to those children. It can only hold them back.
ReplyDelete