Does this make me classist or (shudder!) racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it makes you racist and little ignorant. Do you care that a teacher from Boston does not pronounce their r's? No. Because when white people don't pronounce things correctly it is cute when black people do it, you think they are uneducated.

NP here. I have no problem whatsoever with aks, but I am seriously put off with Boston (and Brooklyn) accents which butcher the english language. What does this make me?

It makes you narrow minded.

Any regional dialect tends to make a person sound uneducated. That may not be a fair assessment, but it's a generalization people make about how we speak.

A boss once told me to add 10 points to the IQ of anyone from West Texas, and to subtract 10 points from the IQ of anyone from England.

No, SOME regional dialects tend to make a person sound uneducated -- specifically, the dialects from the lower-status parts of a society/country. And OTHER regional dialects tend to make a person sound educated. You say so yourself, in your post.

And, strictly speaking, it's not that they make the person sound uneducated, it's that we perceive the person as sounding uneducated. This is something we do, and therefore it's something that we can try to stop doing.

I think that a strong regional dialect makes it seem like you haven't had a chance to get out of your area much, or like you aren't making the effort to speak in a mainstream way.

I came from a part of the country with a heavy accent, and I have proactively toned my accent way down since coming to DC. It's pretty easy to change how you speak. If someone wants to change it, they can. Same for saying "aks." You can be disciplined and train yourself to say "ask."

[Anonymous]

MLK Jr. and William Faulkner had strong regional accents and only an idiot would fail to recognize their enormous contributions to the mainstream of American life and culture. If you've been around a university science department, you'd know that there are a lot of geniuses who can't lose their foreign accents. Assuming they hadn't had a chance to get out much only betrays some serious underlying ignorance on your part.

Southerner accents also make for better telemarketers and scam artists because people drop their guard. So bias and perceptions can be harmful to those holding the bias. Why judge on the accent rather whether or not the teacher uses correct grammar? I don't want a teacher who doesn't know his/her grammar but any assumptions about the accent are just unnecessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother was a perfect grammarian. I expect everyone to speak English correctly if they are teaching in a school. I don't care what race they are.

And the British think we speak English as though raised on a pig farm. Your mom was a perfect grammarian here. Outside of the our borders, maybe not.

I am English and I don't think that. I am aware that American English is sometimes, slightly different to British English. In terms of spellings, verb forms ("gotten" is strictly US not UK) and usage. For instance in the US you might say "he wrote me" but in the UK you would either say " He wrote to me" or "He wrote me a letter", never just "He wrote me".

Doesn't make you pig farmers.

What's wrong with pig farmers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ya know, we've been unimpressed by some of the teachers at my DC's big-3 lower and middle school. Lots of typos in tests and homework assignments, occasional grammar issues, and a general lack of teaching experience! Makes me wonder why we're paying so much when teachers are like that, often just recently graduated from university. One teacher who really has issues is working on a graduate degree in another city so has to take time to go there/back for classes and do homework, etc., AND be a full time teacher at my DC's "big-3" school. Hard to believe.

So -- no, being concerned about "aks" doesn't make you racist. Just let if go though.

I would be very concerned. Why let it go? The K tuition at Sidwell is almost $38,000, that's a full $10,000 more than a competitive K-8 school, for 9 years for a total of $90,000 more than you are paying for the "brand" name. Is it really worth it if the teachers can't even teach? There are some teachers who also cut and paste from one kid to another in their student evaluations forms. I saw that several times and the reason I know is because another kid's name was on the form. What we are paying for??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ya know, we've been unimpressed by some of the teachers at my DC's big-3 lower and middle school. Lots of typos in tests and homework assignments, occasional grammar issues, and a general lack of teaching experience! Makes me wonder why we're paying so much when teachers are like that, often just recently graduated from university. One teacher who really has issues is working on a graduate degree in another city so has to take time to go there/back for classes and do homework, etc., AND be a full time teacher at my DC's "big-3" school. Hard to believe.

So -- no, being concerned about "aks" doesn't make you racist. Just let if go though.

I would be very concerned. Why let it go? The K tuition at Sidwell is almost $38,000, that's a full $10,000 more than a competitive K-8 school, for 9 years for a total of $90,000 more than you are paying for the "brand" name. Is it really worth it if the teachers can't even teach? There are some teachers who also cut and paste from one kid to another in their student evaluations forms. I saw that several times and the reason I know is because another kid's name was on the form. What we are paying for??

+1

[Anonymous]

For ~$35K a year, I would expect my school to hire only the best and brightest teachers. I'm sorry, but this would give me pause.

No private school can pay enough money to hire exclusively the best and the brightest. If they are really the best and the brightest, it is because it is a labor of love and they are independently wealthy or have a high earning spouse and enjoy the student body/environment of private school. You would have to pay probably double in tuition to really hire even teachers that are by and large competitive with public school teachers in high performing districts.

[Anonymous]

Does that make you classist, or racist? Well, that depends. Suppose that your child's teacher said "y'all" and dropped her letter "l"s from the end of words like "pool". But she was a beautiful, preppy sorority type who had attended Nashville's elite Harpeth Hall (or Charleston's Ashley Hall) prep school, and later graduated from the University of Alabama, where she had been a Crimson Tide Cheerleader. Would you be "concerned", or would you be "really happy" to have your child taught by such a "sweet" teacher

You should have gone for Vanderbilt if you are going for Southern schools. People on this board are prestige snobs and think that the University of Alabama is a step up from community college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MLK Jr. and William Faulkner had strong regional accents and only an idiot would fail to recognize their enormous contributions to the mainstream of American life and culture. If you've been around a university science department, you'd know that there are a lot of geniuses who can't lose their foreign accents. Assuming they hadn't had a chance to get out much only betrays some serious underlying ignorance on your part.

Southerner accents also make for better telemarketers and scam artists because people drop their guard. So bias and perceptions can be harmful to those holding the bias. Why judge on the accent rather whether or not the teacher uses correct grammar? I don't want a teacher who doesn't know his/her grammar but any assumptions about the accent are just unnecessary.

Martin Luther King did not say "axe" for "ask."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it makes you racist and little ignorant. Do you care that a teacher from Boston does not pronounce their r's? No. Because when white people don't pronounce things correctly it is cute when black people do it, you think they are uneducated.

NP here. I have no problem whatsoever with aks, but I am seriously put off with Boston (and Brooklyn) accents which butcher the english language. What does this make me?

It makes you narrow minded.

Any regional dialect tends to make a person sound uneducated. That may not be a fair assessment, but it's a generalization people make about how we speak.

A boss once told me to add 10 points to the IQ of anyone from West Texas, and to subtract 10 points from the IQ of anyone from England.

No, SOME regional dialects tend to make a person sound uneducated -- specifically, the dialects from the lower-status parts of a society/country. And OTHER regional dialects tend to make a person sound educated. You say so yourself, in your post.

And, strictly speaking, it's not that they make the person sound uneducated, it's that we perceive the person as sounding uneducated. This is something we do, and therefore it's something that we can try to stop doing.

I think that a strong regional dialect makes it seem like you haven't had a chance to get out of your area much, or like you aren't making the effort to speak in a mainstream way.

I came from a part of the country with a heavy accent, and I have proactively toned my accent way down since coming to DC. It's pretty easy to change how you speak. If someone wants to change it, they can. Same for saying "aks." You can be disciplined and train yourself to say "ask."

Exactly. People should "axe not what their country can do for you, but what you can do for yourself!"

[Anonymous]

You are both classist and racist for titling your post the way you did. Nevertheless, I think you are correct to be concerned about using the word "aks" in the classroom. My daughter had a white teacher in K who would say "ya'alls" and it took years to teach my child that it was incorrect grammar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For ~$35K a year, I would expect my school to hire only the best and brightest teachers. I'm sorry, but this would give me pause.

No private school can pay enough money to hire exclusively the best and the brightest. If they are really the best and the brightest, it is because it is a labor of love and they are independently wealthy or have a high earning spouse and enjoy the student body/environment of private school. You would have to pay probably double in tuition to really hire even teachers that are by and large competitive with public school teachers in high performing districts.

I agree. My kid went to a Big 3 and the teachers are way better in MCPS. They are more dedicated, more intelligent, and they are doing this because they love it. Not all of them but many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are both classist and racist for titling your post the way you did. Nevertheless, I think you are correct to be concerned about using the word "aks" in the classroom. My daughter had a white teacher in K who would say "ya'alls" and it took years to teach my child that it was incorrect grammar.

Years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

For ~$35K a year, I would expect my school to hire only the best and brightest teachers. I'm sorry, but this would give me pause.

No private school can pay enough money to hire exclusively the best and the brightest. If they are really the best and the brightest, it is because it is a labor of love and they are independently wealthy or have a high earning spouse and enjoy the student body/environment of private school. You would have to pay probably double in tuition to really hire even teachers that are by and large competitive with public school teachers in high performing districts.

I agree. My kid went to a Big 3 and the teachers are way better in MCPS. They are more dedicated, more intelligent, and they are doing this because they love it. Not all of them but many.

What is the median pay differential between publics and privates?

[Anonymous]

Are you racist? Only if your race and the race of the teacher is different. Is it?

[Anonymous]

Wow...you people are awful.

My child's teacher says "ax" for "ask". She's a fantastic teacher who works hard on top of just being a gifted educator. Like I give a damn that her speech has some BEV in it.