Ebonics Not an Educational Solution to 'Identity Problem,' Says Prof
by Jim Brown
July 25, 2005
(AgapePress) - A linguistics professor at the University of California-Berkeley is critical of a new pilot program incorporating "Ebonics" slang into the curriculum of two California schools.Public school officials in San Bernardino, California, plan to introduce Ebonics into grade school classrooms as part of an initiative to improve the academic performance of black students by keeping them interested in their studies. The officials state they will be "affirming and recognizing Ebonics through supplemental reading books."
According to Wikipedia, Ebonics -- also known as "Black English" or "Black Vernacular" -- is a dialect that shares many characteristics with various pidgin and Creole English dialects spoken by blacks worldwide. It came to prominence in the U.S. in the mid-1990s when an Oakland, California, school board desired to have it officially declared a language or dialect. "The belief underlying Ebonics education," states Wikipedia, "is that African American students would perform better in school and more easily learn standard American English, if textbooks and teachers acknowledged that ... [Ebonics] was a legitimate speech variety" with its own grammatical rules and norms for pronunciation.
Dr. John McWhorter, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes extensively on race, ethnicity, and cultural issues. He contends it is already known how minority children, as well as those from poor school districts, learn better -- and it is not through teaching them "Black English."
"[T]here are all sorts of programs, most of [which] fall under the umbrella of what's called direct instruction -- and they involve drills," McWhorter explains. "They involve tested methods that have been shown to work many, many times. So the question is, why would you choose the Ebonics idea instead of these, unless what you're really trying to do is make a kind of nationalistic statement, or you're trying to reinforce identity."
McWhorter continues, saying that his wish is that school district officials "would let go of the idea that what we've got is an identity problem, and realize that what we've got is a problem with teaching methods and diligence, and go with what works to help students who really need it."
Teaching students Ebonics, he says, will not improve test scores. "The problem is that we don't know that those things work, especially not to any real degree -- and we know what works," he states.
McWhorter, author of the book Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority, recommends San Bernardino schools seek funding for a learning program called "Open Court" or a variation of it called "Success for All." Both, he says, have shown concrete results in helping black students.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
