What lessons does the Ebonics controversy offer?
A Carrie Secret, a wonderful teacher in Oakland, has a unique approach to Ebonics. She has children listen to the recorded sermons of very dynamic ministers, discuss their meanings, and talk about the complex vocabulary in them. Then the children create performances of the sermons. One of those sermons is on eagles and chickens. Somehow two eagle eggs are put in a chicken coop. The eggs hatch, and all the chickens tease the eagles, saying they are the ugliest chickens they’ve ever seen. Although the eagles are capable of flying, they don’t fly because — living among chickens — they never learn that they can. Finally, an adult eagle flies into the coop and tells the young eagles that they are not chickens, they are eagles and — the eagles find they can fly! The story is a metaphor for African Americans being taken out of their homeland and then told that they are poor examples of someone else. The children do an amazing performance of that sermon with each student dramatically reciti
