Received: from cal.org (cal.org [204.240.146.10]) by literacy (8.7.6/8.7.3) with SMTP id MAA11857 for <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>; Tue, 31 Dec 1996 12:37:03 -0500 (EST) Received: from CAL-Message_Server by cal.org with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 31 Dec 1996 12:40:40 -0500 Message-Id: <s2c909c8.001@cal.org> X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 4.1 Date: Tue, 31 Dec 1996 12:35:27 -0500 From: Fran Keenan <fran@cal.org> To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Subject: Literacy, Language, and African Americans Status: RO X-Status: Unless you've spent the last couple of weeks sunning in Tahiti or hiking in the Andes, you have no doubt read or heard about the Oakland School Board's resolution regarding Ebonics (or Black English or African American Language or African American Vernacular English). Nonetheless, here is a short recap. The hue and cry have variously attributed the Oakland School Board's action to racism, reverse racism, or an attempt at creative financing by going after bilingual education funds. Claims (unfounded) that Oakland schools would be teaching Ebonics instead of standard English have further excited people and caused politicians to step gingerly. The facts of the case have been somewhat obscured by the emotional swell it has generated. Most recently, Reverend Jesse Jackson, after visiting with Oakland school officials, yesterday retracted his earlier harsh criticism and endorsed aspects of the plan. ?I endorse the intent to make our children proficient in standard American English,? Jackson said. "The challenge is to stop ignoring the youth in the margins." Some of the reaction to the school board decision closely resembles the arguments made for ?English Only? which assume that someone is claiming that learning (standard) English is unimportant. Maybe the silver lining of this controversy is that the literacy education of students placed at risk and issues of language diversity are--at least momentarily--enjoying a national spotlight. Fran Keenan, NCLE National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education Center for Applied Linguistics 1118 22nd Street NW Washington, DC 20037 fran@cal.org 202-429-9292, ext. 243 (phone) 202-659-5641 (fax) ********************************************************* Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, NCLE provides practitioners and others with timely information about adult ESL literacy education. NCLE can be visited on the World Wide Web at http://www.cal.org/ncle *********************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 11 2000 - 13:25:30 EST