Linguistic Head Lice

Hat tip to A Stitch In Haste for this ridiculous story out of San Bernadino.  The district is thinking of incorporating the Ebonics into its curriculum:

Texeira suggested that including Ebonics in the program would be beneficial for students. Ebonics, a dialect of American English that is spoken by many blacks throughout the country, was recognized as a separate language in 1996 by the Oakland school board.

"Ebonics is a different language, it's not slang as many believe,' Texeira said. "For many of these students Ebonics is their language, and it should be considered a foreign language. These students should be taught like other students who speak a foreign language...

Len Cooper, who is coordinating the pilot program at the two city schools, said San Bernardino district officials do not plan to incorporate Ebonics into the program.

"Because Ebonics can have a negative stigma, we're not focusing on that,' Cooper said. "We are affirming and recognizing Ebonics through supplemental reading books (for students).'

Uh-huh.  Kip Esquire sums it up best:

I'm not a linguist, and I refuse to wade into the muck of whether Ebonics is a "language" or a "dialect" or both or neither. Here's the easy part — it's not "foreign," hence it cannot legitimately be considered a "foreign language."

When a child shows up in school with head lice, we don't create a special "head lice classroom" for them. We treat the condition and move on.

We don't quibble about which among the immigrant German, Austrian or Swiss children in an American classroom speaks "proper" German or which Spanish dialect — Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican or European — is more "proper" in our schools. We (hopefully) simply teach them Standard Written English and move on.

Ebonics may certainly have some cultural validity, comparable to Hebrew or Yiddish for secular Jews. Knowledge of Ebonics as a supplement to Standard Written English is a personal and family decision that may be rational in some situations and some locations. But Ebonics as an alternative to Standard Written English is not rational and not an appropriate option in our public schools any more than instruction in Spanish or any language (except insofar as to catalyze the learning of Standard Written English).

Otherwise, Ebonics is merely linguistic head lice.

Kip Esquire opens his post with a delightful quote - one worth repeating again and again:

Naturally I am biased in favour of boys learning English; and then I would let the clever learn Latin as an honour and Greek as a treat. But the only thing I would whip them for is not knowing English. I would whip them hard for that.
--Winston Churchill

Comments

[Brendan]

Having head lice can be a pain in the butt, not only for yourself, but for everyone around you.

-Brendan