The Cancer of Ebonics

The Cancer of Ebonics

American society has made concessions for many groups of people with special interests, such as animal activists, environmental activists and a host of ethnic groups. Tough animal rights laws have been passed to ensure the safety and future of a variety of species ranging from the domestic cat to the bald eagle. The development of Wetlands has been curtailed in an effort to protect our swamps and forests from extinction. Our educational system has implemented a program known as, English As a Second Language, which lends itself to the special needs of immigrants in our school systems. This program offers extra tutoring and extra time on tests for immigrants who primarily speak a language other than English. Dudley Scholarship and Bethel Foundation Scholarship, along with over twelve-hundred others, have been created exclusively for minorities in an effort to encourage furthering their education. A list of these scholarships can be found in Directory of Financial Aids for Minorities, 1993-1995. In an effort to promote equal opportunity in the work place, the United States Government adopted the Affirmative Action program, which forces companies to place a certain number of minorities within their work force. Now, some politicians and educators in this country want to make concessions for those Americans who have grown up learning to speak what some people call street slang, as opposed to speaking standard English, which at last I heard was still America's primary language. According to Caroline Boarder, a political columnist, a program known as Ebonics has been introduced in Oakland, Ca., as a way to bridge the gap between black English or bad English-speaking students and standard English-speaking students in an effort to raise reading and writing test scores of African Americans. She also states that the Oakland school board contends that this bridge is necessary because the speaking of Ebonics is genetically related to African Americans. (Educators Sound Off on Ebonics, Washington Post, Jan 97) This hypothesis suggests that black students are incapable of learning the English language through conventional teaching methods, and we must devise an easier way to teach them. I encourage every tax paying American citizen to take a close look at this program; after all, it is you who will be paying the bill for its implementation. I agree with politicians and educators who have at least acknowledged the fact that our education system needs an effective way to instill proper English in all students across the country regardless of their race, but is Ebonics the answer?