A True Story

First off, I have never read a story written in almost entirely African American vernacular. One thing that was very dramatic to me is listening to black vernacular I can usually understand but reading it was so much harder to understand. It was like my brain was working twice as hard to gain the concept. This story used a lot of words that were broken off for lack of a better term. All the apostrophe's in the article can attest to that. Many of the words are missing the last letter when written that I don't think is as pronounced and noticable when African American vernacular is heard rather than read. The words used are common usage that would be heard in an everyday conversation. There are no "scholarly" or "big" words. I use those terms loosely only to prove my point about word choice because I don't think you can actually classify words that way.

 I think our society today would say this lady perhaps sounds "uneducated". I am not entirely sure what classifies a person as sounding "uneducated" and this is something I hope to explore further this semester. The social stigmas placed on a person simply because of their use of language is fascinating.

One quote from Mark Twain himself that I found very interesting was, "sobered my manner and my speech". At first I took this to mean he felt like she was "dumbing him down" or that he would need to use smaller words so she would understand. It could mean he felt brought back to reality with her language choice. One thing I would like to explore more is how we classify people based on their use of our language because Mark Twain seemed to subtly classify her.

What English Teachers "Should Teach"

I think as a teacher of English, one of my primary goals will be to assist my students in becoming educated members of our society. It's obvious some sort of language is needed to function in society. I would like to think of English education as a means of achieving that or at least starting on that path. The apparent things such as grammar are clearly important but I think the beauty of English educators is all the other things we get to "play" with. English education has many possibilities for creativity and one thing for us to teach our students is to embrace that creativity. I also think it's important for our students to learn how to write well. IF they can write and read well, they can function in almost any job they chose. Part of our job as educators is to prepare our students for the world outside of school and providing them with the means to achieve their goals.
English teachers should also be able to teach students to creatively think outside the box. I would like my students to challenge their own minds when reading things and in their own writing. I would also like my classroom to feel safe and productive enough that they can provide each other with positive feedback. I do not think our job as English teachers is to simply "teach English". I'm not sure I even know entirely what that would be defined as but I think it's something that is ever-changing and that we all learn as we go.