The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom.edited by Lisa Delpit Lisa D. Delpit is the Benjamin E. Mays Professor of Urban Educational Leadership at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, and also the director of the Center for Urban Educational Excellence, whose work focuses on education and race. Dr. and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy dow·dy adj. dow·di·er, dow·di·est 1. Lacking stylishness or neatness; shabby: a dowdy gray outfit. 2. Old-fashioned; antiquated. n. pl. New Press, March 2002 $24.95, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 1-565-84544-7 Generally speaking, language, especially black English Black English n. 1. See African American Vernacular English. 2. Any of the nonstandard varieties of English spoken by Black people throughout the world. or Ebonics, never manages to capture the fancy of the reading public until some renowned linguist or cultural scientist tries to use it as a cockeyed justification for the socioeconomic ills endured by African Americans. No doubt when Delpit, a MacArthur Fellow and best-selling education author, and Dowdy, the assistant director at the Center of Study of Adult Literacy and assistant professor at Georgia State University History Georgia State University was founded in 1913 as the Georgia School of Technology's "School of Commerce." The school focused on what was called "the new science of business. , decided to put together a collection of essays assaulting the many myths surrounding language and its relationship to identity, learning and cultural mobility, they understood the critical firestorm that would greet their book. Taken as a whole, the ideas, theories and strategies voiced here may not be revolutionary, but much of their content is thought provoking and provocative. The authors, using a three-pronged approach, have divided the essays into sections: one exploring the nuances of identity and status; the second examining language attitudes in the classroom; and the last dissecting dis·sect tr.v. dis·sect·ed, dis·sect·ing, dis·sects 1. To cut apart or separate (tissue), especially for anatomical study. 2. the significance of language used by teachers during instruction. The authors are all noted figures in education, linguistics and cultural studies, including Herbert Kohl, Asa G. Hilliard, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Jules Henry and Victoria Purcell-Gates, among others. Of the twelve essays in The Skin That We Speak, none lack impact or the powerful analysis needed to force the reader to rethink how language can be used to reinforce false assumptions about intelligence, family background, morality or potential. The essays by Delpit, Ladson-Billings, Baker, Smitherman, Wynne and Kohl offer a new range of considerations about the oppressive use of "Standard English" and the misconceptions about "black English," all geared to put their findings into both cultural and political contexts. For parents, educators and policymakers concerned with the current state of our schools, this is an essential text, long on theory and research, but even more significant in its detailed diagnosis of the damage being done with the formidable weapon of language in the name of learning. --Robert Fleming is a frequent contributor to BIBR BIBR Bay Islands Beach Resort (Roatan, Honduras) BIBR Backward Indicator Bit Received and author of Havoc After Dark. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion