Fact or Flak: Reality behind the Ebonics Debacle

Language is a complicated issue. It's complicated because every human uses language. And because they use language, they believe themselves to all be experts on language. This is not the case. So please, abandon your preconceptions. For those of you unable to abandon your preconceptions, i will use short sentences and small words.

There are children. These children speak a dialect of english. This dialect of english is not the Standard American English (SAE) that is tested for by the SAT, ACT, GRE, or No Child Left Behind. If you were feeling generous, the current way of teaching children SAE might be called "sink or swim." These children only see SAE on television. They grow up in one of the many different cultures that make up the "American Melting Pot". They are brought to school, and expected to behave in a manner they are not familiar with, with minimal instruction.

One school board, decided that this was silly. Wouldn't it make more sense to first understand how their children really speak, and then explain how SAE works by connecting how they actually speak to how SAE works?

In fact, this is a proven methodology! Children of recent immigrants are taught with a good deal of success when you introduce English to them via their own language, rather than in spite of it. So this school board decided, "hey, this could work for us too, why don't we see whether we can qualify for the same funding as children who are learning english as a second language?"

Unfortunately, America did not understand. They though that by acknowledging that children of a particular subculture did not speak Standard American English (although, y'know, really, a lot of people don't. Guess what, you still understand them), that they were being asked to legitimize a dialect of English which is unpopular. They criticized this school board, so much, that all funding opportunities disappeared.

Ironically, thanks to the ignorance of others, children are still told to sink or swim. Through no fault of their own, because the way they speak is considered "ignorant" and "improper", they are not taught SAE effectively.

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On Issues of Culture:

People often decry African American Vernacular English (the linguistic name for "ebonics") as simply being "improper" Standard American English. They often believe that people speak AAVE due to a lack of education. This is a misconception. Children essentially language sponges. From before they're born, up until puberty, childhood brains just soak up language. They soak up whatever language is around them. That's why british children speak with a british accent, and children from Georgia speak with a drawl and a twang. Likewise children who are born to parents who speak AAVE soak up AAVE. They do not speak AAVE because they have improperly soaked up Standard American English. They speak AAVE because that is what they know.

Next. AAVE is not an illegitimate way of speaking. AAVE is a dialect of English. It is like other dialects of english, for example British English, Appalachian, Bostonian or Brooklyn English. It is a way of communicating. Manners of communication are often associated with certain ways of behaving. The way you speak to your boss or the way you would speak to the president is different from the way you speak to your close friends, or to your significant other. In fact this is so universally the case, that people stereotype it. For instance, academics are often accused of being pedantic, or arrogant. That's because they occasionally speak in a way that is difficult to understand for people who are not familiar with the subject at hand. It is only arrogant if they refuse to explain the unclear points, or dismiss those who don't understand, because they are uninitiated.

Likewise, people who demand, and expect children who speak AAVE to suddenly flip a switch and begin speaking SAE are in a similar situation. They are dismissing AAVE speakers out of hand, without giving them a chance to become acclimated to SAE.