based dialects of their nurture in which they find their own language” upon “the […] identity and white students allowed to refuse to learn the conventions of style”? Are Standard English because they grew up speaking Redneck Trailer Park Vernacular? There be lots of white folks what talk real ignrunt and cant spel worth a durn neither cause they didnt get none that proper book learnin cept what they got in school where there teachers wernt much smarter than they was. I grew up in an environment where it was not uncommon to hear things like When my teacher told me that the correct “I seen.” usage was or have I trusted and believed her, and I never for a moment “I saw” “I seen,” considered the possibility that she was attempting to berate or demean me. In and “Writing White Privilege: Beyond Basic Skills,” Susan Naomi Bernstein describes herself as white woman from a middle-class who was called “a family” (130) upon to teach writing to students who were speakers of Spanish, Urdu, “native Vietnamese, and Black English Vernacular—languages that were inseparable from [and therefore] inseparable from (128). Bernstein cites one of her culture […] race” students, a white a the only male, “from socioeconomically disadvantaged background,” white student in a class of twenty-two, who wrote a hiphop styled poem about “one big perpetrated by the public school system to force him to conform to the conventions plot” of written Standard English for the sole purpose of performing well on state-mandated standardized testing, which having failed to do so, caused him to be placed in a remedial college freshman writing class (129). Bernstein observes the following: In order to succeed on state-sponsored tests, students must write in English, a marker of the of “standard” “educated” middle class. Lack demonstrated fluency with this reason enough to “standard” becomes
language” based upon “the dialects of their nurture […] in which they find their own identity and style”? Are white students allowed to refuse to learn the conventions of Standard English because they grew up speaking Redneck Trailer Park Vernacular? There be lots of white folks what talk real ignrunt and cant spel worth a durn neither cause they didnt get none that proper book learnin cept what they got in school where there teachers wernt much smarter than they was. I grew up in an environment where it was not uncommon to hear things like “I seen.” When my teacher told me that the correct usage was “I saw” or “I have seen,” I trusted and believed her, and I never for a moment considered the possibility that she was attempting to berate or demean me. In “Writing and White Privilege: Beyond Basic Skills,” Susan Naomi Bernstein describes herself as “a white woman from a middle-class family” (130) who was called upon to teach writing to students who were “native speakers of Spanish, Urdu, Vietnamese, and Black English Vernacular—languages that were inseparable from culture […] [and therefore] inseparable from race” (128). Bernstein cites one of her students, a white male, “from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background,” the only white student in a class of twenty-two, who wrote a hiphop styled poem about “one big plot” perpetrated by the public school system to force him to conform to the conventions of written Standard English for the sole purpose of performing well on state-mandated standardized testing, which having failed to do so, caused him to be placed in a remedial college freshman writing class (129). Bernstein observes the following: In order to succeed on state-sponsored tests, students must write in “standard” English, a marker of the “educated” middle class. Lack of demonstrated fluency with this “standard” becomes reason enough to