Should African American Vernacular English be used to teach African-American children?
An important aspect of the current situation is the strong social reaction to suggestions that the home language of African-American children be used as a basis for learning to read and write. The Oakland controversy is the fourth major reaction that I know of to proposals to introduce children to reading and writing in a language closer to their home language than standard English, and move them gradually to the reading and writing of standard English. Many leaders of the African-American community believe that there is no distinctive African American English, and that the dialect described by linguists is simply the same “bad English” that is spoken by uneducated people anywhere. The suggestions for transitional programs have been regularly reported to the public as plans to teach the children to speak African American English, or Ebonics, and to prevent them from learning standard English. As a result, only one such program has been thoroughly tested in the schools, and even that pr
