Want to "empower" more DCPS students? Have schools offer speech class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Does it make you feel better to call others racist?

Many Southerners, Appalachians, rural New Englanders, etc. face the same problem. It's about education (or perceived level of edcation and competence), not race. Most vernacular speech sounds not smart - use UNEDUCATED or UNITELLIGENTto many people. Fair or not, that's reality. We

In my business, we don't hire people who can't use spell check or SAT words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd offer that there is some of this in white kid culture too. My kid has a teacher this year who makes them look him in the eye and shake his hand at the beginning of the day. He also has forbidden "like" unless it's used in a simile, and is fighting a valiant fight against the world of emojis and text slang.

I love this man.

This is great. We don't like 'like.'

[Anonymous]

Ebonics?

[Anonymous]

I actually think OP is on to something, but it shouldn't be framed in racial terms. In my experience, most Americans, even those with a decent education, don't speak particularly well. We may not use bad grammar or constant profanity, but most of us just don't know how to present ideas well, unless we happen to have had a lot of experience or training. I think it's one reason why so many Americans love hearing British people speak. It's not just the accent, it's how articulate and polished they sound when they communicate.

I know I would have benefited enormously from studying speech when I was in school and I hope that this idea catches on in DC and beyond. People here get so hung up on being PC, but students of all races and classes need this.

[Anonymous]

Going very old school here, but elocution instruction is a lost art. Teaching students of all ages proper grammar, usage, speech and presentation skills would be beneficial.

No one should be able to graduate from high school without properly conjugating the verb "go."

I work with students and generally, all could use some basic conversational skills training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are communicating quite effectively in the particular dialect of English they speak, which linguists refer to as AAVE. It sounds "wrong", "low class" and "unclear" to you because it's coded as Black and you, as an average white American, subconsciously view all things coded Black as inferior and threatening.

Now, that said, they certainly need to know how to code switch into Standard American English if they want to be hired at most white collar workplaces, since most hiring managers are lowkey racist just like you. Too bad.

Call us when you come back to earth.

If you can't express yourself clearly and cogently, and with correct standard English, you had better have some super power if you expect to be hired into a group of brainy high performers. (Yes, there are exceptions for math-wiz types on the spectrum.) Make no mistake: an excellent command of vocabulary and grammar, especially spoken, is always impressive; the lack thereof, the opposite, whether people admit it or not. People are correctly judged by such things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think OP is on to something, but it shouldn't be framed in racial terms. In my experience, most Americans, even those with a decent education, don't speak particularly well. We may not use bad grammar or constant profanity, but most of us just don't know how to present ideas well, unless we happen to have had a lot of experience or training. I think it's one reason why so many Americans love hearing British people speak. It's not just the accent, it's how articulate and polished they sound when they communicate.

I know I would have benefited enormously from studying speech when I was in school and I hope that this idea catches on in DC and beyond. People here get so hung up on being PC, but students of all races and classes need this.

These are very good points.

My brain hums when listening to those rare people who can speak off the cuff with precision, organized structure, and with words that convey just the right shade meaning, as though they could dictate straight to print and need no editing.

The educated English are on average much better at this than we.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually think OP is on to something, but it shouldn't be framed in racial terms. In my experience, most Americans, even those with a decent education, don't speak particularly well. We may not use bad grammar or constant profanity, but most of us just don't know how to present ideas well, unless we happen to have had a lot of experience or training. I think it's one reason why so many Americans love hearing British people speak. It's not just the accent, it's how articulate and polished they sound when they communicate.

I know I would have benefited enormously from studying speech when I was in school and I hope that this idea catches on in DC and beyond. People here get so hung up on being PC, but students of all races and classes need this.

I agree. The problem is that this is a skill that cannot be measured on a standardized test. So who cares?

[Anonymous]

So change the darn tests! Believe it or not, standardized tests in other countries (e.g. British A-Levels and Cambridge Exams) can include presentations and interviews in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So change the darn tests! Believe it or not, standardized tests in other countries (e.g. British A-Levels and Cambridge Exams) can include presentations and interviews in English.

Exactly. Doesn't most of Europe do this, even in high schools?

[Anonymous]

I taught public speaking at the college level. Everyone benefits from taking public speaking. As for accents and dialects, I find there are many across the US and they all have issues for audiences if one isn't familiar with it. Case in point, I could easily understand a black DC teenager long before I could someone from Scotland.

It also helps dramatically if parents speak properly to their children at home from birth. I know some of my children's friends who were raised by nannies have some speech issues. So people on this thread need to lighten up. Few people have perfect speech! And then we have our President....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught public speaking at the college level. Everyone benefits from taking public speaking. As for accents and dialects, I find there are many across the US and they all have issues for audiences if one isn't familiar with it. Case in point, I could easily understand a black DC teenager long before I could someone from Scotland.

It also helps dramatically if parents speak properly to their children at home from birth. I know some of my children's friends who were raised by nannies have some speech issues. So people on this thread need to lighten up. Few people have perfect speech! And then we have our President....

Understand all that you said -- good points.

But the issue isn't whether we here lighten up. It's that poor speaking constrains job prospects because communication skills matter for businesses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught public speaking at the college level. Everyone benefits from taking public speaking. As for accents and dialects, I find there are many across the US and they all have issues for audiences if one isn't familiar with it. Case in point, I could easily understand a black DC teenager long before I could someone from Scotland.

It also helps dramatically if parents speak properly to their children at home from birth. I know some of my children's friends who were raised by nannies have some speech issues. So people on this thread need to lighten up. Few people have perfect speech! And then we have our President....

We hosted several foreign exchange students when I was growing up. The ones that we literally couldn't understand were from Ireland. Admittedly, they were from a particular part of Ireland, and others from other parts of Ireland couldn't understand them either.

As PP said upthread though, there's dialect and there's slang/rude language. Standardized tests should not be rewritten in slang or rude language.

[Anonymous]

You all realize that Wilson, and I think some of the other DCPS schools, offer electives in debate as well as public speaking now?

Which would teach many of the skills you desire.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I taught public speaking at the college level. Everyone benefits from taking public speaking. As for accents and dialects, I find there are many across the US and they all have issues for audiences if one isn't familiar with it. Case in point, I could easily understand a black DC teenager long before I could someone from Scotland.

It also helps dramatically if parents speak properly to their children at home from birth. I know some of my children's friends who were raised by nannies have some speech issues. So people on this thread need to lighten up. Few people have perfect speech! And then we have our President....

Lots of generalizations here.