In addition, as I've indicated above, mainstream English has borrowed heavily from the speech of African Americans. So, in many ways, it is easier to conceive of all the dialects of English as variable and continuous, rather than categorical and separate. For another thing, the problems ebonics speakers face are shared by speakers of other nonstandard dialects as well, whether they live in the inner city, in rural America, or even in the suburbs. As this discussion suggests, the flap over ebonics is more complex than the school board's action and the initial public response indicate. It raises crucial questions about the workings of language and our attitudes toward its use, especially in school contexts.
Many teachers assume that their students are empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge.
But by the age of five or six, students already have learned more about their native language than they will learn from school. Teachers must learn to recognize the rich and flexible linguistic talent that students already possess, working with it as they move students not toward a monolithic, mechanical correctness, but toward increasing linguistic depth and flexibility. The teacher's job is not merely to conduct lessons in translation, but to introduce students to, and get them to function more comfortably in, new and ever more diverse language environments. It is this richness and flexibility, rather than strict adherence to a vaguely-defined standard, that will bring about successful communication. In the same way, speakers of nonstandard forms of English, whether or not they are members of a racial or ethnic minority, may find that it takes a lot more than speaking standard English to get accepted into the mainstream.