Ebonics and New Math

I belong to a home school "discussion board". It is a fantastic place to vent or ask for help or just to know that other people are also going through what you are. Today there was a post that sort of threw me for a loop. I'm not really sure how I feel about it, so I figured I could blog it out. Prepare for a long, arduous journey. Bring a snack and a juice box.

The first part of the post is that our county school board had determined that Ebonics is being recognized as an official language. Now the staff can no longer correct it. The student is allowed to use Ebonics in their written assignments, except for "formal papers", or term papers. My first reaction is you have got to be effing kidding me. Who is the idiot that said this was alright?

Do we really want people to start speaking Ebonics? Although that tends to be rampant in our culture these days, it pisses me off. Speak clearly, please. I know that it sounds completely stupid, but in a way I agree with Jeff Foxworthy. One of his big jokes was you didn't want to hear your brain surgeon speak with a Southern accent. I don't want to hear mine speak Ebonics. I also don't want to hear it from my banker, or lawyer. To me, it makes people sound ignorant. It appears as a lack of respect to speak in a way that others wouldn't understand. It makes you a coward because you won't say it where everyone can understand you.

Apparently, teachers are being trained in college that to correct someone speaking Ebonics is bad for their self esteem. Really? I think trying to get you to clean up your act, clean up yourself, and make something respectable out of your life instead of dealing drugs on the corner would be great for self esteem. That's just me. And clothes that fit would be a great start.

On the other hand, think about the person or people that started Ebonics. How cool is that? Sitting around one day, made up a new language, and the next thing you know, it's all over the world. And the sheer volume of words now. It's almost like a foreign laguage. And there are cultures all over the world that have different slangs. Is Ebonics a form of slang? The words keep popping up in dictionaries all over the world. Does that make them an official word?

See, I told you I had to blog it out. It brings up questions that I don't have answers for. I just know that I don't like it. But I also think that if you come to this country, you should speak the language. I don't care what you say. I grew up in Texas and was not surrounded by it for a very long time. I do not remember Spanish spoken around me except for the Spanish we learned in kindergarten. Then it was almost that you couldn't get away from it.

It was everywhere you went with the signs that were posted. If you went to a theme park, the signs were in English and Spanish. If you went to a ball game, the signage was English and Spanish. I went on a band trip to another state and we were all amazed by signs that were all English. At first it was like we couldn't get enough of the signs. And, no, I am not a racist.

Here's my side of it. I look Hispanic. I have dark eyes, hair, and skin. Automatically, I was Hispanic. I'm not. If I was, I would be very proud of that side of my heritage. People would actually get irate with me when I wouldn't speak Spanish to them. I know enough Spanish to get me into trouble, and maybe enough to get me out. The would argue with my boss, in Spanish, that I was rude because I didn't speak to them in Spanish. She had to defend me in a language I didn't speak.

I was accused of being with a group of shoplifters because I look Hispanic. I was shopping in Dillard's one day and there were three Hispanic females at a rack next to me. The next thing I know, security was all over them, and escorting them to the office. One of the security guards asked if I was with them. One of the girls told them I wasn't, and so did I. He finally believed me and let me go. I never went back to that Dillard's. I know that these are my issues, but they influence the way I think.

One of my first office jobs was at a store with a warehouse. Most of the guys who worked out there were Hispanic. And they were all very nice and I considered them my friends. But when I walk by and they stop speaking, I knwo who they were talking about. Or when they don't stop talking and it's all Spanish. Yeah, just keep looking fellas. You'll never get to do that to it. I speak a little Spanish. I know what they said, and it was the fact that they tried to hide what they were saying. Who knows what I would say if I could understand what you were saying.

I say let's all speak English. Ebonics just sounds stupid, and a little degrading some times. I've layed out my language issues. There you go.

The other part was "new math". What was wrong with the old math? Did it suddenly not work the right way? Did 2+2 not equal 4? Apparently you do math from the left to the right. Huh? When my big girl came out of fourth grade last January, she wasn't doing new math. But how would I help her with her math? I do the stale math. And I have yet to see a text book that teaches new math. And I should know, because I am a curriculum junkie. And how does that translate into the real world? Is my bank, if it doesn't fail, suddenly going to switch to new math? Do I have to start balancing my check book a different way? I can barely keep it above zero now.

And they no longer call it "borrowing". When you carry a number from one column to another, it's now called regrouping. Do you want to know why they changed it? Because you don't ever give it back. So it's not borrowing, it's taking. I kid you not. Every time I hear that I have to chuckle. But that was the answer given. Who was so bored out of their mind one day that they came up with that? Take one more drag then hand it this way. Expand my mind a little.

That's all I've got for now. I think I feel better. Thanks for listening.