We frequently hear critics argue that U.S. students can’t write well and that there is a “literacy crisis” in the U.S. What is the origin of these discourses? What do they have to do with immigration, national security, and economics? How does the notion that Americans can’t write drive the national push to test writing? Here we explore the history of writing and testing in the U.S., the “science” and technology of testing approaches, and how the rhetoric of assessment impacts the lives of Americans today.
8 comments:
I found this video on youtube. After watching it I realized that every example they gave of Black English was from a talk show, such as Maury, shows that are looked down upon.
The message from this video goes against everything that Gilyard was for. It wants total eradication. It doesn't see Black English as a part of the identity of the children.
Now the idea that learning standard english to get ahead is a good argument. But Garrard McClendon is not talking about code-switching or bidialectialism. He wants to replace the Black English with Standard English.
It may be a form of eradication inside of school, but I assume that when the students go home they will revert back to speaking Black English.
What occurred to me was that several of the students said that they had never been corrected before because none of their elders knew what was correct. This begs the question:
If more/all teachers corrected bad grammer, would the literacy gap between races begin to shrink?
So, Black English is bad grammar in Standard English. If teachers are correcting black english in favor of standard, isn't that a form of condemning the language which these students identify with.
If black english is a legitimate language/dialect then the grammar is only bad in Standard english. If the teachers correct the "grammar" of black english, yes perhaps the gap would decrease, but wouldn't Black English decrease. Black English is part of a culture. Would one want to eliminate part of culture in order to have higher test scores? I think bidialectalism should be the aim.
And we can't assume that the students will revert back to black english in the home. McClendon was positing Black english as inferior to Standard English. Would you want to go home and speak a language or dialect that you were told was inferior?
Meg, you brought up a great question: “Would one want to eliminate part of culture in order to have higher test scores?” I don’t think higher test scores directly correlate with the eradication of a speaking culture, but it is a very interesting thought. If there is a causal relationship, what is more important: one’s culture or a good test score? We all know that getting a good score on a test leads to a better education to get a good job later in life, right? Or maybe not…
All of those clips from television reminded me that hearing bad grammar on television is one of my biggest pet peeves. I think that it is so unprofessional. It instantly makes someone seem less intelligent to me. I think that a lot of times poor grammar is really just a sign of laziness or ignorance. Schools obviously need to do a better job of teaching proper grammar so that the bad grammar isn't getting passed down through the generations.
Kelsi, the way I see it, test scores and culture are not mutually exclusive, meaning that both should be able to co-exist. Both Gilyard and Douglass have shown that education and literacy can transcend cultural boundaries. According to my professor of Race relations, SAT scores are directly correlated with income. Maybe that answers your quandary.
Paige, I completely agree. And in the last year or so since I declared English as my major, I have been so much more aware of bad grammer. It is everywhere. Like our professor said on tuesday, you can look in pretty much any piece of literature and find poor grammar. As a matter of fact, I just typed "grammer" and had to correct it.
I completely agree with Paige, when I hear this dialect it makes me think that the speaker is unprofessional or unintelligent to me too. I don't think that the schools should treat the black vernacular any different than they treat another other dialect. If they make a grammar error or any other error, just fix the issue don't say, "oh that's just how this person talks, it's ok." I think the idea of accepting Black English as an alternative to standard English or an acceptable way to complete assignments or speak in school is ludicrous. I am not suggesting eradication is right, people can speak however they want when they're in the appropriate environment but that environment is not the school or workplace.
Kyle, I agree that as it is right now, speaking AAVE should not be an excuse for poor performance in school. However, I think a lot of the negative stigma stems from, not only past racism, but the fact that the majority of the elementary and secondary educational professionals have little to no idea what the rules of AAVE are. How can a teacher grade a students writing if they themselves do not know what corrections to make???
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