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Freire and Ebonics
Reflection #2
Freire and Ebonics
Quela Jules
2/20/13
Two friends came to me outraged last week about a heated discussion regarding the use of Ebonics in the classroom and whether or not it should be fostered, or tolerated in schools. A white male student blatantly said that Standard American English is the only acceptable form of English in the United States. I am not here to say whether I agree or disagree with his stance on the topic, but rather to provide a series of images related to it. What was difficult about hearing the man speak was not the words he was saying, but the position from which he spoke, he was white, privileged, and conservative, and one could infer that his main contact with African American Vernacular comes from Hip Hop, or the words that have somehow made their way into the vocabularies of the young white and privileged. He is speaking as someone who has only had to master one language his whole life and fully understands the privilege in that.
Education Autobiography (Gabrielle Crossnoe)
Chapter 1: Criss-Crossing the Map
Chapter 2: “Extra Extra Retarded”
Chapter 3: Here at Camp Phoenix
Chapter 4: The Chocolate Factory Manager
Chapter 5: Build Me Up Buttercup
Chapter 6: Symphony v. Latin
Chapter 7: The Letter
Chapter 8: 2am Steak ‘n Shake, Water Balloon Fights, and the River at Dawn
Chapter 9: Eastern Standard Time
Chapter 10: The Mawrtyr Returns
Chapter 7: The Letter
At this point, I was not simply upset with my high school administration. I was livid. I had spoken to teachers, principals, even the district school board, and yet, the only response I had received was silence. Perhaps they were under the impression that if they continued to ignore me, I would lose heart, sit down, give up. But this seventeen-year-old was not about to be muted.
