Figures of speech

Ebonics backlash doesn't add up

Let's look at an equation:

X = A public school creates a $200,000 program to train teachers how to use the knowledge of children who have a different way of processing numbers as a basis for teaching them the standard way of doing mathematics.

Y = Children who are suffering academically because standard teaching techniques were failing to work and left them feeling belittled.

X + Y = Z

Now let's make a substitution.

X = The Oakland Unified School District creates a $200,000 program to train teachers how to understand children who speak in Ebonics and help them to better learn standard English by using their current speech patterns.

So doesn't X+Y still equal Z?

Apparently not.

Critics, including National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Kweisi Mfume, said acknowledging Ebo-nics as a legitimate language would hurt black students.

Some lawmakers have also jumped on the bandwagon of political and media hype. U.S. Rep. Pete King, a New York Republican, has introduced a bill to bar federal money from school programs based on Ebonics. And state lawmakers in South Carolina and Virginia have drafted bills that would prohibit Ebonics instruction.

The school district in Oakland had nothing but students' welfare in mind when it created the program. And the district cleared up misconceptions about the program on the World Wide Web. According to the site, located at http://www2.phillynews.com/daily-news/97/Jan/13/ national/LANG13.htm/.

• The district is not replacing the teaching of standard English with Ebonics.
  

• The district is not teaching Ebonics.
  

• It is providing teachers and parents with the tools to address the diverse languages students bring to the school.
  

• The objective is to build on the skills students have without alienating the students for their diversity.
  

Despite the controversy, X+Y adds up, and that is what critics need to keep in mind.

Because of this circus of controversy and misinformation, what is most important is being dropped from the equation -- students who deserve the chance to learn.

And however they would phrase it, the students would probably say they deserve that chance.