Ax vs Ask

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a PP previously pointed out though, it may be so ingrained for the teacher that she couldn't really change it if she tried.

If one year of hearing ax instead of ask from one person is going to be that disastrous to your child's learning, perhaps you should gather up some money and look for a school where all the teachers say ask.

Or move into a school district where the public schools don't, you know, suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was the reason I wanted my child in the Spanish Immersion program so he wouldn't pick up those type of bad habits. I observed an AA teacher in another class yelling at her all AA students using "AA dialect" I could barely understand a word she said. If you want to speak that way at home among your friends that's one thing, but don't bring it into the classroom.

Wow. These are the times when I know I need a serious break from DCUM. This is about the 4th ongoing thread of "let's heap on the negative African American stereotyping". An incredible amount of ignorance from such "educated" people. Just try your best not to pass it on to your kids. Do your part to break the cycle. I, for one, know my kids will be learning to treat people as individuals instead of thinking they know anything about them just by looking at their skin color. Which is all these stereotypes are good for. Much easier than actually getting to know someone.

Not sure what you're taking issue with? That many, many African American teachers speak like this? Or that teachers are supposed to set an example of proper diction.

Jesus, it's no wonder no teacher in DCPS ever gets fired. Are there any standards whatsoever? If MLK and Malcolm were to come back to life, they'd be pretty sad to see what's happened to educational standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Doesn't this entire thread sum up the problems with the DCPS. When parents (especially ones who care enough to post on and read forums related to the schools) can't agree that teachers should speak grammatically correct standard English, what hope is there for DCPS?? Wow! Maybe the parents of DCPS are a bigger problem than I ever imagined.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP---

If you're worried about this-- then you probably don't need to be. Besides yourself, your child will meet plenty of other people who say "ask" and prbably fewer and fewer who say "axe." Your child will figure out that some people say ask and some people say axe, and the ones asking are getting, while the ones axing can just keep on axing and axing . . .

It would be great if your child also learned to respect others, even if they are from a less well-educated background.

To the PP who wrote, "I think it has been stated over and over that it is unacceptable for a teacher to say 'ax' instead of 'ask' in the classroom" I think you need to have a chat with Anonymous here. Because it's pretty clear that they think having your child's educational role-model use "ax" instead of "ask" in the classroom is a-ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm AA and "ax" is one of my pet peeves. It really irritates me and suposedly educated people should know better. But I'm a stickler for good diction and grammar. Which is why my kids are now in private school.

On a mildly related note: one of my neighbor's children--who is a 3-year-old with a short crew-cut--picked up one of his daycare workers' habit of patting himself on the top of his head when it itches--presumably to avoid messing up his "weave".

Now *that's* funny!

[Anonymous]

Do you people really think that your upper middle class children are going to grow up to speak African American dialects?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Because of the connotations of the word Ebonics, it's not used in more educated circles. Ya dig?

Translation – we need to be politically correct and not call it Ebonics – because everyone thinks Ebonics is an improper way of speaking (hmm) – but that’s what it actually is.

By the way – did anyone else snicker about the poster ardently defending the use of Ebonics claiming to be part of “more educated circles?” <snort>

It's not really anything funny, but I suppose fools can find humor in anything.

I'm defending AAVE from a linguistics standpoint- it is a legitimate dialect with rules and consistent grammar structures. If you deny that, you're doing the opposite of proving that you're educated.

I don't speak AAVE, so this isn't a personal argument for me. DCUM is just where I get my kicks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you people really think that your upper middle class children are going to grow up to speak African American dialects?

Seriously? No. But one could argue the time spent *unlearning* this shit could be better spent learning something else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Because of the connotations of the word Ebonics, it's not used in more educated circles. Ya dig?

Translation – we need to be politically correct and not call it Ebonics – because everyone thinks Ebonics is an improper way of speaking (hmm) – but that’s what it actually is.

By the way – did anyone else snicker about the poster ardently defending the use of Ebonics claiming to be part of “more educated circles?” <snort>

It's not really anything funny, but I suppose fools can find humor in anything.

I'm defending AAVE from a linguistics standpoint- it is a legitimate dialect with rules and consistent grammar structures. If you deny that, you're doing the opposite of proving that you're educated.

I don't speak AAVE, so this isn't a personal argument for me. DCUM is just where I get my kicks.

Fo shizzle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you people really think that your upper middle class children are going to grow up to speak African American dialects?

Seriously? No. But one could argue the time spent *unlearning* this shit could be better spent learning something else.

After reading your sentence, I'm a little surprised you're even taking the time to be pissed at someone saying 'ax'. Shouldn't you know better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm defending AAVE from a linguistics standpoint- it is a legitimate dialect with rules and consistent grammar structures. If you deny that, you're doing the opposite of proving that you're educated.

I don't speak AAVE, so this isn't a personal argument for me. DCUM is just where I get my kicks.

Right. I'm not really sure why folks get so incensed over the idea that AAVE is a legitimate dialect from a linguistics standpoint. That's really a side issue anyway. I mean, cut-offs and a Billy Ray Cyrus t-shirt are perfectly legitimate clothing choices. It's just that you'll never get a job doing anything but manual labor if that's what you wear all the time. And school is where we send our children to be taught appropriate social behavior.

I don't care if you talk like Mater from Cars, or Flava Flav from Public Enemy--unless you're an educator and an authority figure. Then I care.

[Anonymous]

Someone needs to take an ask to this thread. Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you people really think that your upper middle class children are going to grow up to speak African American dialects?

Seriously? No. But one could argue the time spent *unlearning* this shit could be better spent learning something else.

After reading your sentence, I'm a little surprised you're even taking the time to be pissed at someone saying 'ax'. Shouldn't you know better?

What you axing?

[Anonymous]

My gosh, there are some really uptight people posting here. And some of it borders on racist, although I can't tell if they are serious all of the time or just being provocative.

Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My gosh, there are some really uptight people posting here. And some of it borders on racist, although I can't tell if they are serious all of the time or just being provocative.

Who cares if your child has a teacher that uses ax? Really.

Personally, I think folks who casually throw around the charge of racism as if it were a verbal tic are worse than Hitler.

No? Okay, how about this then: if you want to throw a charge of racism out, it has to be based on more than your mulish irritation with those who take an opposing position from the one you'd prefer. You have to, you know, make an argument and stuff. Otherwise, you're like the Tebagging idiot who compares Obamacare to the Holocaust. In other words, it's a pathetic cheapshot.