A recent e-mail from a dedicated teacher illustrates a problem that has received far too little attention. Click here

In her kindergarten class was a little black girl who did well except for getting a very obvious question wrong. It turned out that the little girl had no problem with the concepts or the facts but had misinterpreted a word because it sounded like another word that she had heard used at home, where a "black English" dialect was spoken.

Since the teacher was white, she knew that she was running a risk by getting into this issue. Opening this can of worms could result in anything from being called a "racist" to an ugly confrontation at school or in court.

Nevertheless, the teacher told the girl's mother that, unless her daughter learned standard English, her education could suffer and her intelligence might be so under-estimated that she could be falsely labeled subnormal.

It was near the end of the term so there was no time to see what effect, if any, the teacher's words might have had.

Some time later, however, the mother and the teacher happened to encounter each other in a department store and discussed what had happened since their discussion.

Sure enough, the same problems had caused the little girl to do badly on tests in her next class. Fortunately, the girl's mother now remembered the teacher's warning and began to get workbooks and to watch how people spoke around the little girl at home.

On the next tests, the girl made straight A's.

Think about it: This straight-A student could have ended up a failure and perhaps even considered retarded, if her teacher had not gone out on a limb to let her mother know what was wrong. Years of letting the problem go uncorrected could have taken a toll on her prospects for a lifetime.

No matter how smart you are, you can end up looking pretty dumb if you take a test written in Chinese. But there is no excuse for English to be a foreign language to anyone growing up in the United States.

Thanks to the dedicated work of Ron Unz in California and other states, the practice of teaching Hispanic American students in Spanish under so-called "bilingual" programs, has been shot down and the test scores of Hispanic students have gone up.

For black students, getting them away from "black English" is likewise key to improving their education and all the opportunities in later life that will depend on education. Unfortunately, there are too many people with a vested interest in promoting "black English" and other fads that are part of the multicultural ideology.

What makes this a farce, as well as a tragedy, is that what is called "black English" is a dialect that originated among white people in parts of Britain centuries ago. That dialect was transferred across the Atlantic when people in those parts of Britain settled in the American South.

With more than 90 percent of the black population living in the antebellum South, this transplanted dialect became the language of American blacks. Meanwhile, that dialect died out in Britain, with the spread of education and the standardization of the English language.

It also eroded away in the South, with the spread of education among whites and blacks. But it persisted among the least educated blacks and, after the 1960s, this dialect became a badge of racial identity. Teachers were warned not to tamper with it and many heeded the warning.

Fortunately for one little girl, one teacher defied the taboo and pointed out the obvious handicap that "black English" could be in school and in life.

One teacher can't do it all. Not only do more teachers need to start correcting "black English," blacks themselves -- especially leaders and activists -- need to recognize what a high price a whole generation of black youngsters will pay for the indulgence of a fad and the hustles that grow out of that fad.

The time is overdue. And the clock is still ticking.



tell me what you think of ebonics. well i dislike it. i cant understand broken english and people who take words and say them in a differ way it gives me a headache trying to figure what there trying to say

wow, I honestly didn't know ebonics was considered a language....I knew there was a dictionary but I thought that it was a joke, I didn't know it was taken so seriously. And that fact that the one little girl and Im quite sure many others are recieving bad grades because their use of the..language is just...wow? I can't describe in words how I feel about that.

I'm black and my family speak in ebonics often, It gives me a headache also. I just can't stand it, I often just give up on understanding what they're saying to me.

a school in the middle of nowhere created an 'ebonics' class. people called it racist so it was cancelled.

i really don't care how a person talks as long as i can understand them.

Yeah, I think thats kinda stupid, people should be able to speak however they want to. But if it interferes, then they should learn both.

First of all, there's a difference, in my opinion, between ebonics and Southern Black English. Ebonics is more of an urbanized version of the dialect Blacks used in the South when they migrated to Northern places. In most cases, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to understand someone speaking with a Southern dialect. You might get some double negatives ("Ain't no way I'mma..."), some problems with subject-verb agreement (I is goin' to the store"), and hell, some problems with slang terminology ("fittin'a" instead of "going to," "yonder" instead of "other there") but there's no reason why it wouldn't be understandable.

And I disagree with your claim that ebonics is "broken." Ebonics is a dialect, like any other. Ebonics, in a way, captures the rhythms and nuances of Black speak. Sorry if you can't understand that.

In any case, I agree, there should be proper English taught in schools, just to make it easier on kids when they grow up and have to enter the workforce and that proper instruction should start in the home. I'm not saying, however, to totally disregard a whole people's way of speaking. It's okay if it's spoken in the home, in the neighborhood, on the streets, or what have you, as long as the child recognizes that there's a "proper" way to speak English.

I also, don't know to much about ebonics, but I have heard that the sentence structure is a bit different from "standard english". Much like most immigrant families, I believe they should be able to speak whatever language they want, but still need to learn "standard english" so they can suceed,

Like what just about everyone here has said, everyone has the right to speak their own language, but its place is on the streets, in the playground and at home. Not in the classroom. Like any other child with English as a second language, comprehension and learning will be hindered due to the language barrier. If it takes learning to speak standard english at home to overcome this and achieve better schooling, so be it.

That teacher is really quite brave... My mom teachers, and half her kids don't even speak english. She really can't say anything to the parents because well, they get really upset and usually cause her nothing but trouble...she teachers art, so words are not so important I guess....

Personally, I find the southern dialect to kind of dumb down what some one is saying. It may come across as ignorance when someone uses a double negative or has a miss matched subject & verb.

Thats just my opinion though.

hey! dont generalize the south! although im not black so...heh. it really does annoy me sometimes. i cant understand what they're saying, and...it pisses me off. they should speak english. and because they speak like that, they write like that, in "ebonics" i guess...and its just not good.

so please make everything less confusing, and

SPEAK ENGLISH!

Everyone does have the right to speak their language .. but when it comes to talking to another person whose language sticks to standard English and obviously not fond of understanding this 'Ebonic' language or any type of, he should speak standard English to show respect on communication with one another.

Let me clarify this before this becomes a bigger issue than what it should be.

I'll first address the issue of "talking white" as opposed to "talking black." Each culture and subculture will have their colloquial expressions and there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with a little slang amongst peers in your social circle. How is, "Whats good, fam?" any different than, "Whats up, dude?" Its not.

As for this black english nonsense; I see this as just another way to say, "Black people are different and we don't want to make any more mistakes so lets cater to them." Yea, this shit has to end. The stereotype of African Americans being less educated and less eloquent in speech has irked me to no end and I think everyone, of all races, should be cognizant of the truth; "Black folk be real smart, boss!"

So the little girl in the article just responded as if she were around her family. I see nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is that this is made into a big deal. Would a child of any other race be given this sort of exposure because they used their own terminologies in expressing themselves instead of 'proper english?' Of course not.

If you're going to give us some media exposure, at least shine the light on the Hurrican Relief.

^ some teachers would correct students.

I remember when i used to say "ain't" My teachers would freak out on me. They also freak out about replacing "may" with "can". And I don't believe english teachers would appreciate Dude used in class unless its referring to the original meaning.

Its not saying they don't have the right to their own language. But in a School, They teach proper English. Thusly, you need to be able to understand it. No matter who you are.

God I hate it when people say others talk/act a certain race.....it's not freaking possible to "act white" or "talk black" etc. etc., get over it. People are people, they will talk and act how they want, no matter what race they are. Not all white people are the same, not all black people are the same, not all asians are the same, so how can someone even say someone acts or talks like a certain race? NO ONE IS THE SAME.

This isn't really a matter of what race that she's acting. I believe that they should be allowed to speak their own slang at home, whether they be educated or not, but when it affects the child's ability to learn, it can be a significant problem.,