Hello, my friends! Welcome to another exciting edition of Captain Scurvy Speaks. This issue's hot topic is Ebonics, as I round out with a socially stimulating article. The question posed today: "Is all this Ebonics hoopla necessary?" After a great deal of research, I can say with a definite amount of certainty that it is.
First, let's try to understand what Ebonics is. Ebonics (short for "Ebony Phonics") is a dialect (not a language) spoken almost universally in every inner-city environment across the country. Linguists have studied this phenomenon to death, and have ascertained that it is indeed a dialect with it's own speech patterns and grammar rules (this is not a form of "lazy English", my friends). Just to use an example, the infinitive "to be" is not conjugated in Ebonics. The inner-city student will say "John be sick" or "John sick". The first form, "John be sick", means that John is constantly sick. The second, "John sick", means that John is currently sick. In Standard English, we only say "John is sick" for either situation. In this case, Ebonics proves to be more specific than Standard English, because it contains a necessary tense that we lack. Ebonics is closely related to many West-African languages, and the problem is that it contains so many Standard English words that people mistake for a lazy form of Standard, when it in fact is not.
Opponents of Ebonics have many arguments against the language. The first is that something called "total immersion", or putting kids in an English-only classroom, is the best way to learn Standard. After all, isn't that how you learned? In fact, this behaviour actually lowers the self-esteem of students, who are frustrated with their inability to communicate with the teacher or read their books, and receive no special attention because it is not deemed necessary. This kind of socially-Darwinistic treatment of Ebonics is nothing more than a lazy way of sweeping these students "under the carpet", and is as good as saying, "if a 6-year old can't doesn't want to work to learn Standard English, it's not my problem". Another argument against Ebonics comes in the form of all those statistics which "prove" that Ebonics programs don't work. What these stats don't tell us is the simple fact that tests such as the S.A.T. and "specialized" studies do not accurately gauge how students do. Further, some of the "fallacies of reform" include that A.) Reform must show results right away and B.) We can't afford reform. So read "statistical analysis" of any educational reform with a grain of salt: the methods are unreliable. Others argue that Ebonics education will only create racial barriers, which is a ridiculous argument entirely. Which is more likely to create those barriers: students who can speak Standard English, or students who are unable to communicate with the rest of the Nation? Obviously, it is the latter. The last, and usually most convincing, case against Ebonics is that it has done nothing to help students in the Oakland school district. The refutation for this argument is simple.
First, we have already discussed how reform never shows results right away.
Second, the Oakland district has more to deal with than just Ebonics-speaking students: crowded classrooms, low teacher's salaries, shortage of computers and other such resources, and dilapidated buildings are also menacing threats to the quality of education in Oakland, and something we don't often hear about. Last, education involving Ebonics has been a part of the California school system since 1968. It has only recently become an issue because the Oakland district published their new educational resolutions in a manner so befuddled by "education-lingo" and "typographical errors" that even Jesse Jackson became infuriated. When the school system hired a publicist to expound the true nature of the reform, Jesse Jackson- and many others- switched sides.
The real virtue of Ebonics education is not that it teaches students to speak Ebonics- a common misconception. The entire program is designed to help students master Standard English by recognizing that they do speak a dialect which differs wildly from Standard. And now I ask you, what is wrong with helping students who need help desperately to speak Standard English? If you're still not convinced and would like to read my 6-page essay, or if you would like to peruse my bibliography and go right to the sources, then please contact me.
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