DW3A

Ramsey: “Teaching the Teachers”
In “Teaching the Teachers”, Ramsey points out that one dialect is not superior to another, that dialects are merely different. However, “pragmatically, some dialects are better than others: some open doors and create positive impressions, while others lose jobs by creating negative impressions”. Unfortunately, this is the sole reason many students value “Standard English more than their own dialect” and want to “learn to write effectively in Standard English”. Accomplishing this goal and teaching black and Spanish speaking students to more proficiently write in Standard English as “effectively, sensitively, and painlessly as possible” was proven to be a difficult task because many teachers are too worried about messing with racial boundaries to do it successfully. When teachers to try to correct dialectal related errors, they often go about it in the wrong way, by correcting grammatical errors but not elaborating on how to more successfully fulfill the writing process and therefore write a paper of literary merit.

“Of course there are special nuisances when teaching dialect writers: how to get that "s" on the third person present tense singular and the "ed" on the past tense. But these grammatical irregularities, though they grate on the ears and eyes of almost every English teacher, are minor when compared to the problems of teaching that essays”

Sometimes, the papers submitted containing AAVE features are poorly written, but the main culprit of this is that the student just does not know how to properly write a paper (200). To correct this, teachers should focus on teaching students in general how to write, not students of a certain race how to write. “The basics of writing-how to organize, how to develop a paragraph, how to write with specificity rather than in generalities-are aracial.”
Ramsey later argues that teaching Standard English to black students who want to learn it will not destroy black culture. If a black student wants to learn Standard English, they should be taught it, not told to just use their own language styles because it is easier for the teacher. If the student is discouraged to learn Standard English by being encouraged to just use their own dialect style, then the teacher is rid the trouble of having to make a lesson that effectively teaches black students Standard English.