Proposition 227 (was Re: NP Ebonics)

[jbor]

The backlash against providing equity programs for students with Language
Backgrounds Other Than English resurfaced in California just under five
years ago:

http://brj.asu.edu/archives/1v21/articles/Issue1Crawford.html#Ret2

It set a nasty precedent, and similar policies have been adopted in other US
states since then.

Perhaps "Ebonics" wasn't the best example to bring to the debate, as it is a
derivation from (or subversive reappropriation of) "standard" American
English rather than a "foreign" language (even though all modern languages
are hybrid and derivative anyway), and it's a highly controversial (but
important) issue for a range of reasons over there in the U.S. But the case
for respecting and actively encouraging the maintenance and strengthening of
the home language is a sound one. Proficiency in a first language
facilititates and enhances Second Language Acquisition. Conceptual and
metalinguistic skills, knowledge and understanding are transferable between
languages. This is basic stuff.

"Culture" isn't just food, music and festivals. That's tokenism. Language
and culture are inseparable. Wiping out a language is one of the strategies
of genocide and imperialism.

Of course people in a "free" society must be free to speak African-American
English, or Spanish, or whatever, as their home and community language, and
this choice should not prejudice their success at school or in gaining
employment or other life opportunities. The fact that people speak a
language other than English as their first or chosen language does not mean
that they're stupid, or that they can't learn to understand and use
"standard" English to communicate in formal and informal contexts. But
appropriate educational programs - and that includes acknowledging and
respecting individual and cultural identities, and cultural diversity - need
to be provided to ensure that they get the chance to do this.

A society which institutionalises failure and exclusion for individuals from
certain backgrounds - whether on the basis of religion, skin colour, wealth,
language ability, migration status, IQ or whatever - is far from democratic.

best 


on 14/3/03 10:25 PM, Abdiel OAbdiel at abdieloabdiel at yahoo.com wrote:

> TSI is about integration in
> public school. It's about language and power. So the
> thread come out of the story.
> Thank God the language mavens have lost on this one.
> Parents, angry and determined, faught ignorance and
> racism in the courts and won. But in a Bush presidency
> we need to keep fighting because under both Reagan and
> Bush we lost ground. So much progress has been made
> and to see it turned back by the language mavens in
> the name of some  american
> prescriptive/proscriptive.perscriptive ideal standard
> ain something we should take standing in the back of
> the bus.