AAVE and Educational Equity: A Historical Perspective

1219 Words3 Pages

I’ll tell you like this. I ain’t had no whole lot of education myself; I come up on the streets and had to learn my lessons the hard way. But the way they be…they be doing these childrens today is a shame. I don’t want no special I.Q. tests for black kids. I don’t want no damn psychiatrist tellin’ me my kid can’t learn. I want the book that they give to the whites be the same for the blacks. I want the best teachers in black schools too, and I specially don’t want no black kids kicked out of the school; you gotta keep them kids in the classroom if they ever gonna learn (Baugh, p. 342).
This excerpt was documented in the late 1970s and precisely captures not only
her representation of AAVE, but also her love and passion for her family.
The goal of education is to provide all students with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a diverse society. Realistically, this goal is tarnished for African American children speaking only AAVE. Dialect differences result in social restrictions, and because of this, educators must be aware and sensitive to policies regarding language and expectations (Lanehart, p. 127).
Previous notions for advancing language principles for African American children has faced great disputes throughout history. During the 1970s, many African American parents believed that academic textbooks should be written …show more content…

The assumption of child language as a determinant for African Language explicitly explains the biological assumption that African Americans are inferior to all human species (George, 2004). When African Americans were colonized among whites, white supremacy blockaded any prospects for African American affluence. Yet, African Americans appeared to possess an endless objective to “make a way out of no way” and this concept has set the tone for all African Americans throughout

Open Document