arn Standard English. The United States is a competitive world and many businesses require certain tools and skills, among them is a strong command of the written and spoken Standard English, to obtain a job. By teaching and encouraging African American students to speak ebonics, educators are allowing these students to believe that this manner of speaking is acceptable and will give them an entry to society and the workforce. However, "ebonics does them no favor at all (Woodall. 1997. P.1)." Some educators believe that by instituting ebonics in the school system will result in the further erosion of our educational system. In order to graduate for high school, there are some prerequisites that must be completed which are the "necessary standards of mathematics, science, and English, for the purpose of producing successful citizens of our country (Cuckler. 1997. P.1)." According to the article Ebonics and Education (Internet), Standard English is the language of economics and it would cause problems within the economy and society if students assume that learning ebonics will help them progress. Throughout this paper, there are various views on the use of ebonics in the schools and in society. These ideas are all put in a way, which softens the blow on this sensitive manner. However, there are those who feel very strongly about the issue at hand. According to Banks (1997), racist educators have used the education of Black English speaking students as a weapon to sabotage their learning for centuries. To many educators, the ebonics system has been a “handy tool used to label them retarded, warehouse them into special education curriculum, and set them upon the fast track to lifetimes of academic failure (Banks. 1997. P.1).” As stated before, there are many African words that which have been incorporated in American English such as “uh-uh, uh-huh, goober and okra.” Banks (1997) supports his ideas by ...
