What's Wrong With This Picture?

Reading the essay on this page may make you angry enough to get involved. If you do become angry and don't know who to point it at, let me know. I can help you write the letters/faxes/emails that will get attention and just may make other people ask 'What's wrong with this picture?'.

Essay by : Jan Noble, 'The Steel Magnolia'

You won't find ebonics spoken in the halls of I.B.M, Coca- Cola, or Annapolis. You won't even hear it spoken in the Board of Education meetings. You will only hear it where the education system has utterly failed, in the inner cities.

Now, American English is a conglomerate of many nationalities to be sure, but it is a proper language in it's own right. Can you imagine the riots that would take place if someone were brazen enough to suggest a similar thing in France? While I may detest the French, they do insist that their language be spoken properly. This is America. English is the language of America. Ebonics is the invention of a mentally challenged educator who couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to foist it on everyone instead of trying to teach children how to speak properly.

Were I the parent of a child attending a school where the board wanted to institute ebonics, I would ask why the teachers who are being paid by tax payer dollars to teach can not teach what they are hired to teach. That is their job, not to solve social issues or re-engineer society, but to educate. Nothing more, nothing less. Most of the parents who have children in the school districts where this has been brought up are themselves 'graduates' of a public school system. Why did they not learn to speak English in twelve years? Thought provoking, or it should be. It could be that they were cheated out of a good education and never even knew it. What's wrong with this picture?

It is interesting that no such effort has ever been thought of for the immigrant populations of this country. Why? Maybe it is because these children pay attention in school and go home to parents who demanded that the children learn their lessons.

Maybe...the Federal Government might want to take the money it wastes on midnight basketball and find an answer to that question. Or even put the money into programs that taught children to read in the first grade instead of the third grade this problem might not exist.

Maybe...if the parents themselves tried to speak proper English their children would learn it.

Maybe...if parents read to their children instead of plopping them down in front of an electronic baby sitter, the children might just learn to read better and as a side effect, speak English at a higher level.

Maybe if parents kept their children in their own homes in the evenings, and supervised their homework, everyone might benefit and there would be no need for Ebola-bonics (Ebonics).

Maybe those same children wouldn't be exposed to drugs, violence, or Ebola-bonics (Ebonics), if they were in their own homes at midnight instead of roaming the street in herds.

Nothing in this life is free. If you want to succeed, you must have a good grasp of your language. In this country, the language is English not Ebonics.

To succeed is to realize your dreams, whatever they might be. You will be forever chained to mediocrity if you do not learn to speak well. You deserve the best education that can be had and you are not getting it. What's wrong with this picture?

As a parent, the ultimate responsibility for your child's education rests in your hands, not the hands of the government. You have the power, use it.

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If you would like to trade stories, email me at steel_magnolia@mindspring.com

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