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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard rich, white folks use conversate, orientate, irregardless, could care less, etc etc.

AX is just a dialect. May not be awesome, but no worse than "warsh" (Baltimore), Birfday" (my upper PA in laws say this), or whatever. Really. You KNOW your kid is not going to come home saying "ax," so the only reason it bothers you is because...actually, I don't know why.

False equivalence. Ax is not a dialect or an accent. It is a mispronunciation of word, which reveals either a lack of education or some kind of learning disability. The white people who use the words you listed above are revealing a lack of education. Not sure how that aided your argument. All you're really saying is that there are also uneducated whites (or whites who are uneducated on the use of those words).

I grew up in the 1980s in a public school system that was 100% white. There were kids in my school who said ax instead of ask (if white kids in my lily-white town use it, how could it be a black dialect?). Those kids, more often than not, landed in the remedial program, and were certainly not the high performers when high school came around.

The true racists on this board are the apologists chalking up the use of ax as a black dialect, as if no one should expect blacks to be educated enough to know the difference. Sorry folks, but holding the black teacher to a lower standard is racist.

Pot meet kettle! You are the ignorant one ... educated yourself on the history of the pronunciation.

Nonsense. The Chaucer story is far from compelling.

+1. The bolded is absolutely not true. Google is your friend on this.

Nonsense. The Chaucer story is far from compelling.

[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.

That's cute that you "expect" the best and brightest, but you do realize that private schools pay less than public, right? Your child's teacher is making less than 50k, possibly/probably much less than that. There are some best/brightest teachers at your child's school who don't need a living income and work there because of the great students/work conditions, but there is also a faction of teachers who work there because they don't have other options. That is what happens when you pay significantly less than other employers in the area from which the best and brightest can pick and choose.

When I worked at a private in the area, I made 38k, and that was only after a salary negotiation when I explained after the job interview that I couldn't live on their initial proposal, which was less. I was young but had 4 years of experience then, plus an M. Ed., plus an MA in my subject. Great kids and it broke my heart to leave, but there was just no way I could have stayed there on the salary because I had student loans. Multiple teachers who HAD been there a long time weren't certified, so they didn't have the option of moving on for a living salary. Multiple other teachers who had been there a long time were financially independent, but there aren't enough of those to staff every private, so they rely on young teachers who will work to gain experience and then move on.

[Anonymous]

Our DD's second grade teacher (at a DCPS school) said told the kids to "axe their parents" about something. I later jokingly made a Lizzie Borden reference when I saw her at parent teacher conference. It went right over her head.

[Anonymous]

It's not racist to shudder at poor grammar and pronunciation! Our schools should insist on high standards.

[Anonymous]

I think the problem is that you are using a metathesis as some kind of leading indicator of educational quality or lack thereof.

Quality teachers demonstrate an understanding of developmentally appropriate behavior/skills, and they discuss that with you at the parent teacher conference. They generally use several different methods of presenting concepts, they use spaced repetition, and they understand the common pitfalls in mastering particular concepts and skills. Does your kid's teacher do that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Should I be concerned that one of the home room teachers at my kid's Big 3 Elementary School class says "aks" instead of "ask"?

Weren't you the person who started the same thread that turned into, yes, a racist brouhaha on 'Off Topic?' Your tone is the same and the question is similar.

If you think this is a problem, please take your happy behind down to the school and discuss it with the teacher so your special child won't be forever scarred. It's your right but I doubt if you have the courage to talk with the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not racist to shudder at poor grammar and pronunciation! Our schools should insist on high standards.

And it's not racist to comment on the usage of poor grammar (you're vs your) which I see on BOTH sides of the fence in writing and pronunciation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard rich, white folks use conversate, orientate, irregardless, could care less, etc etc.

AX is just a dialect. May not be awesome, but no worse than "warsh" (Baltimore), Birfday" (my upper PA in laws say this), or whatever. Really. You KNOW your kid is not going to come home saying "ax," so the only reason it bothers you is because...actually, I don't know why.

You idiot. "orientate" "irregardless" and "could care less" are all 100% grammatically correct.

Oriented. Regardless (the other only RECENTLY accepted due to rampant use). Could care less isn't what you use when you are saying that you CouldN'T care less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not racist to shudder at poor grammar and pronunciation! Our schools should insist on high standards.

+1.

Especially when you pay $35k or more in post-tax dollars, per kid and year. For a family with 2 kids, that's more than $100k pre-tax income per year.

[Anonymous]

I would be quite unhappy, OP, and I don't care if that makes me classist or racist, frankly. It's just not the prevalent English usage, which to all practical intents and purposes makes it wrong. Period.

[Anonymous]

So much PC bull$hit on this thread. Of course it's not ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard rich, white folks use conversate, orientate, irregardless, could care less, etc etc.

AX is just a dialect. May not be awesome, but no worse than "warsh" (Baltimore), Birfday" (my upper PA in laws say this), or whatever. Really. You KNOW your kid is not going to come home saying "ax," so the only reason it bothers you is because...actually, I don't know why.

You idiot. "orientate" "irregardless" and "could care less" are all 100% grammatically correct.

Oriented. Regardless (the other only RECENTLY accepted due to rampant use). Could care less isn't what you use when you are saying that you CouldN'T care less.

Do you want to try writing that out again, in English this time?

[Anonymous]

A couple of years ago I took DC to visit a school in a suburb in Massachusetts. We got lost so I asked a police officer for directions. He said ".......then you go down to the "yad" and turn right. I thanked him but was thinking what the hell is a 'yad' and assumed it was a street. Stopping again to get directions, another individual said ".....go down to the YARD and make a right."

Some is mispronunciation. Other IS dialect. Would you crucify the police officer for mispronunication or credit it to dialect?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So much PC bull$hit on this thread. Of course it's not ok.

And so much holier than thou uppity bullshit on this thread.

[Anonymous]

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.

Not the pp but that's just not the case--poor grammar is poor grammar. When my southern in laws say fixin or the something akin to that it drives me nuts! It's not a race thing but it may be a class thing. Other things I can't stand: "alls I'm saying," "where you at?,", I could care less," etc.