This is a cross post from Equality 101.

I wrote a post the other day about Standard English Privilege that has garnered quite a bit of attention.  The main argument of the post (I won’t bore you all with the details again) goes a little something like this:

Why is it that so often on the internet I see people revert to the argument that so-and-so writer or commenter can’t spell or construct a grammatically correct argument and therefore the entire argument has no validity in this sphere?

Is literacy so important to credibility here? (One could argue that being literate in this way is vital to the credibility of the author of the post, but is it for commenters?) Or, let me rephrase: Is Standard English literacy so important to credibility here?  Or, let me rephrase again: Is white, upper-or-middle class English literacy so important to credibility here? (I am not saying here that you have to be white or upper-or-middle class to have a command of Standard English.  Just that it is no secret that Standard English is the language of white, educated people.  For more on this, see this article.)

When we discount people and their arguments because of their command (or lack thereof) of grammar, what we are really saying is: Your thoughts are useless because you don’t use the kind of grammar I’ve come to expect from literate people on the internet.  What we are also saying is far worse: You don’t have the privilege to have learned the “correct” way of writing or speaking, and, therefore, your ideas are worthless.

In this previous post, I was referring specifically to blog authors and the surprisingly widespread tendency I’ve seen to discount arguments because the commenter “can’t even write a grammatically correct sentence! So they must not be very smart!  [giggle]” However, I think this has some interesting implications for teaching, as well.

As teachers, we are taking into account our privilege all the time.  Some of us have white privilege or male privilege or class privilege or any number of other privileges, and those of us who fall into those categories must realize that we have these privileges and be constantly aware of them as we teach our students who may or may not have those privileges, as well.  But there is another privilege that isn’t very often discussed that is almost a non-negotiable privilege for teachers that we don’t usually talk about: Standard English privilege.

Standard English (SE) privilege means that you, one way or another, have a good command of SE grammar.  As stated above, this usually means a few things: 1) You grew up speaking SE at home; 2) you have had access to enough books, articles, and other written works to teach you what SE is supposed to look and sound like; or 3) you have had access to enough education to teach you what SE is supposed to look and sound like.

We know that 1) SE has been dubbed White English Vernacular (WEV); 2) books and articles cost money and parents have to have a lot of time to read them to their children; and 3) education is often expensive.  We blog and talk about these sorts of things all the time in our education communities, and yet there are still teachers out there who see three grammar mistakes and hand the paper back for the student to correct it before he/she will read any further.  This type of behavior – the type that makes grammar mistakes more important than the ideas in the paper – reeks of white privilege and class privilege.  I think my favorite literary character said it best when he said: “That’s something else that gives me a royal pain.  I mean if you’re good at writing compositions and somebody starts talking about commas.” ¹ When we mark up a paper with our red pens – circling every spelling error, crossing out every extra word, pointing out every missed comma – and hand it back to the student and ask him or her to revise, it’s no wonder all we get back are corrections of grammatical errors and no real revisions of ideas.  When students think all we care about is grammar, all they’ll edit is grammar.  Far worse than that, when all we care about is SE grammar, we call their entire literate identity into question, and when we tell them their grammar is “wrong” – if that’s all we tell them – what we are really saying is that their argument is worthless because their command of SE grammar isn’t good enough.

I know there are still a few grammar sticklers out there, clutching to their red pens for dear life.  (“But it’s on the ACT!!!” you scream.  “We MUST teach grammar!!!”)  I’m not saying we should stop correcting grammar all together (although maybe we should stop calling it “correcting”).  I’m just saying that with practice and the nurturing of a student’s ideas in a paper, the grammar will come.  And, really, aren’t the ideas more important, anyway?  What, really, is “good grammar” without interesting thoughts?

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Why is it that so often on the internet I see people revert to the argument that so-and-so writer or commenter can’t spell or construct a grammatically correct argument and therefore the entire argument has no validity in this sphere?

Is literacy so important to credibility here?¹  Or, let me rephrase: Is Standard English literacy so important to credibility here?  Or, let me rephrase again: Is white, upper-or-middle class English ² literacy so important to credibility here?

When we discount people and their arguments because of their command (or lack thereof) of grammar, what we are really saying is: Your thoughts are useless because you don’t use the kind of grammar I’ve come to expect from literate people on the internet.  What we are also saying is far worse: You don’t have the privilege to have learned the “correct” way of writing or speaking, and, therefore, your ideas are worthless.

We’re all very aware of the fact that we have privilege; it is the topic of many blog posts in the feminist blogosphere.  Criss says this well here; we are bloggers and, therefore, we have privilege that many others don’t have because, in order to blog, we need a computer with internet access, free time in which to blog, and we need to be literate.  This must mean that we have at least enough education to understand a command of the – in this case – English language, and we must feel comfortable enough with our command of the language to write articles and put them out there for everyone to see (and comment on, and criticize).  Not everyone has this privilege.  For one reason or another, not everyone possesses the same level of comfort with Standard English as we bloggers do.  These reasons are very often related to race and class; it has been my experience that students of a different race than me and students from a lower socioeconomic background than me posses (often exquisite) command over a different English grammatical structure than me.  But does this make their arguments and ideas less valid?  No. And to argue such reeks of race and class privilege – just the things we work so hard against.  Which is why it is appalling to me how many times I see people say: “This person can’t even write a coherent sentence, so they must have no idea what they’re talking about.”

I would urge you, bloggers, from now on to look at your practices in a new light.  Sure, all we’ve got on the internet is literacy – all of our communication more or less takes place using reading and writing practices – but be careful when discounting or making fun of arguments because they are not written using Standard English.  Not everyone has the privilege of understanding its use.

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This is just a little taste of my new post on Equality 101.

“How can I help kids gain fluency in Standard English – the language of power – without obliterating the home language which is a source of pride and personal voice?” – Linda Christensen

For a recent school improvement day, the English staff at my school was asked to read “The Politics of Correction: How We Can Nurture Students in Their Writing and Help Them Learn the Language of Power” by Linda Christensen.  Now, I have read many, many articles about African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and English Language Learners and English Only legislation.  I’ve read many, many articles about how students who have grown up learning Standard English – predominantly students who are white and/or middle-to-upper class – have an unfair advantage over students learning other vernaculars when it comes to taking state tests and other state standards.  So much of these articles, however, were simply theory, and finally, after reading this article, I felt someone had finally written about what we, as teachers, can do to help these students.

Personally, with the way the state standards are at this time, I believe that there has to be a way to help students learn how to code switch – talk and write in their own vernacular with friends and family, but talk and write in Standard English when appropriate.  In her article, Christensen posits a few solutions to this issue that made sense to me.  She begins by discussing students she sees every day who are “handcuffed” by their inability to use Standard English – the language of power.  She fears they will leave school and be afraid to speak up in public meetings or write letters of outrage over policies because they “talk wrong.”  In this way, she justifies teaching her students Standard English; it is not just because of the state tests that they need to learn this vernacular, but because of future instances in which they may need to be able to use Standard English.

So how do we effectively help students feel comfortable about their writing and proud of their heritages while teaching them the “language of power?” …

Want to read more? (You know you do!) Click here!

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