EBONICS OPPONENTS SLAM STATE BOARD FOR ISSUING LESSON PLANS USING SLANG.Byline: Paul Hefner Daily News Sacramento Bureau Broadening their attack on the use of ebonics, conservatives criticized the state Department of Education for supplying teachers with lesson plans that call for speaking and writing slang in the classroom. State Sen. Ray Haynes Raymond Neal Haynes, Jr. is a Republican politician from the state of California. After Haynes graduated from University of Southern California Law School, he moved to Moreno Valley and practiced law in Riverside. He stated a solo law practice in 1988. , R-Riverside, said lessons prepared by the state and used in 300 schools statewide - including 31 in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. - are hurting students. ``Ebonics is fast becoming a statewide concern because it promises to miseducate mis·ed·u·cate tr.v. mis·ed·u·cat·ed, mis·ed·u·cat·ing, mis·ed·u·cates To educate improperly. mis an entire generation of children by lowering academic standards,'' Haynes said. A move by the Oakland school board to recognize ebonics as a language distinct from English sparked nationwide debate in December. The controversy eased somewhat after Oakland officials said the goal of their program is to teach students standard English Stan·dard English n. The variety of English that is generally acknowledged as the model for the speech and writing of educated speakers. Usage Note: People who invoke the term Standard English . The Los Angeles school The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. board recently tabled a motion to expand the use of ebonics. Haynes, who has introduced a bill that would bar districts from using state or federal funds Federal Funds Funds deposited to regional Federal Reserve Banks by commercial banks, including funds in excess of reserve requirements. Notes: These non-interest bearing deposits are lent out at the Fed funds rate to other banks unable to meet overnight reserve for ebonics programs, said the public is being misled. ``You've heard . . . defenders of ebonics say that the purpose of this program is not to bring slang into the classroom. The curriculum before you shows that's not true,'' he said. Haynes distributed a lesson plan handbook with instructions to teachers to write a series of improper sentences on a chalk board, and then ask students to translate them. Among the examples were ``Michael Jackson Noun 1. Michael Jackson - United States singer who began singing with his four brothers and later became a highly successful star during the 1980s (born in 1958) Michael Joe Jackson, Jackson be dancing'' and ``Michael Jackson be the best dancer I know.'' State education officials said the lessons, written in 1981, are meant to help some African-American students make the transition to standard English. Teaching often requires starting with the wrong answer, said Sonia Hernandez, deputy superintendent for the state Department of Education. ``If you're going to start banning, you better ban the SAT, because if you remember the SAT and some of the other standard tests, they give incorrect phrases and sentences and ask students to correct them,'' she said. Hernandez said racism played no part in development of the curriculum. ``It is not intended to be racist,'' she said. ``If that was anything that we even suspected, believe me we'd be the first ones to draw it back.'' |
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