File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-01-03.212, message 49


Date: Thu, 2 Jan 1997 15:56:04 -0800
From: djones-AT-uclink.berkeley.edu (rakesh bhandari)
Subject: Re: M-I: Ebonics.


This is a conversation which I wish we could have in person. I am moved by
Carrol's insistence that no student be marked as inferior because of the
language he or she brings into the classroom. Hindi was my first language,
and I was myself removed from my elementary school class for rememdial
training. I was deeply humiliated by supposedly having a special problem,
which was really only a heavy accent. I don't like the idea of children
being removed from the class for special language problems--I wish my
teachers simply knew a little about India and openly noted that the mother
tongue of very few first-generation Americans has ever been English.
Instead I was made to feel like a freak until I learned to sound like the
next Valley boy. Much of my young educational life was marked by nasty
teacher suspicion of my abilities, no matter my test scores; and to be
honest, I never thought of myself as validated until I had open-minded
university teachers (maybe that's why I am still here?) But this was all
before Asian-Americans became the model minority, a devastating stereotype
for the working class kids here in Oakland.

By all means, we should study Black English and  celebrate the blues in our
history and composition classes, but we should study it together. And we
should together understand Black English in all its complexity--its roots
in West Africa, its innovative impact on working class life, and the way it
has been forced on people as a way of marking their inferiority.

Also, if students are failing, I would argue that it is not because
teachers fail to speak to them in Ebonics and thus cannot instruct them in
composition and history. Anyways, if teachers are to speak in Ebonics, then
there is no reason to segregate African-American students; many of the
students of whatever ethnicity speak what people may take to be Black
English. The Chinese American classes may have to be conducted in Ebonics
as well.

All in all, many children are not too inspired in the public education
system. It would make more sense to have smaller classrooms, better paid
teachers, better facilities and books.

And of course that is what the Oakland teachers went on strike for last
year. The strike was settled on unfavorable terms however. I guess this is
one of the concessions--special all Black, overcrowded classes conducted in
Ebonics, instead of radical improvements in public education for all the
children who are being failed by it.  And once overcrowded Ebonics
classrooms fail to motivate students and impart skills, what conclusions
will be drawn?

Comradely,
Rakesh




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