What year was this article published?

Incorporating Ebonics into a new school policy that targets black students, the lowest-achieving group in the San Bernardino City Unified School District, may provide students a more well-rounded curriculum, said a local sociologist.

… (Mary Texeira, a sociology professor at Cal State San Bernardino) 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.

Texeira said research has shown that students learn better when they fully comprehend the language they are being taught in.

… She said a child’s self confidence is tied to his or her cultural identity. (funny, we thought it was tied to the ability to accomplish things - ed.)

Unfortunately, it’s from 2005 … specifically, yesterday.

The credulous reporter is apparently unaware that when Oakland tried to implement Ebonics in 1996, it was a “civic embarrassment.”

Even if you replace the inflammatory and ridiculed “Ebonics” with “African-American Vernacular,” this is as bad an idea now as it was then. This is not progress, it’s surrender to the lowest common denominator. What jobs await people who can’t speak standard American English? What colleges will read all the way through their application essays?

[H/t: Michelle Malkin]

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Internal dissension! Co-Editor Insider did not like the title of this post and found 23 he liked better!

[We’ve been writing a lot about education lately: here]

This entry was posted on Monday, July 18th, 2005 at 3:01 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under California Schemin', (Un)education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.