Black people have always had to be bilingual, but we have also always known the space, place and context of our bilinguality. When there is no context, when commercially viable workplaces lock us out, our children end up monolingual, and only marginally so. Should our schools lock them out or pull them in? Can teachers take the language used and turn it into standard English proficiency. The Oakland Board of Education says yes. Their position has been "dissed" (or disrespected) by a drive-by analysis that reacts to headlines and nothing more. Now they have to explain themselves with press releases, web site information kits, and bibliographies that try to tell the whole story.
Oakland should not be on the defensive, but on the offensive about issues of African American education. Based on their experience, Oakland school board members ought to be the ones to bring educational leaders together to discuss key issues around the education of African American youngsters. Are educational challenges the same, or different, from those of the majority culture? And as long as we accept the notion that different children have different needs, why can't African American youngsters be accommodated? Too often, in African American History Month, there is talk about visionaries of the past. But by opening a can of worms about learning styles and Ebonics, the Oakland school board might be described as the visionaries of the future. Let's get the facts straight on the Ebonics controversy, and celebrate the educators who said their goal was, no matter how, to teach Black children standard English proficiency.
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