"Ebonics"
...on the premise behind putting Ebonics, or African American Vernacular English (AAVE), in the schools seems sound enough. Teaching Standard English to inner-city blacks in classes using their own language as the classroom language, using reading materials dealing with topics familiar to them, could teach young black children to speak Standard English in a standard way that doesn't diminish their own vernacular. Even though "Ebonics" meet all the criteria that would make it a language ("words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community," according to Merriam-Webster), such a declaration would force America to admit that its sitizens are different, and that difference should be liberated and cultivated. It would mean that instead of referring to Black English as lazy and pidgin, Americans of all backgrounds could give "Ebonics" the same patience and respect they give to anyone who speaks a different tongue. Language, after all, is a function of humanity – discrediting...