Thursday, January 16,1997
NEWS/ The Charlotte Post
3A
Fire death points out many dangers
Continued from page 1A
like that.”
That was one of the tips pre
sented during a community
ineeting Tuesday night at
Devonshire Elementary
School.
Butler taught math at
Piedmont Middle School
before volimteering to transfer
to West Charlotte this year
when Piedmont’s ninth
graders were moved to the
high school.
His death shocked students
and fellow faculty members at
both schools. The students
have begun raising donations
for the family.
Butler’s portrait was dis
played on a bulletin board in
the West Charlotte office this
week. The funeral was
Saturday.
Other fire safety tips pre
sented by Lowery and other
fire officials 'Tuesday are:
• Install smoke detectors
and keep batteries fresh.
• Plan a fire escape route
and practice it with family
members twice.a year.
• Keep an eye on smokers.
Careless smoking is the lead
ing cause of fire deaths in
North America.
• Cook carefully. Never
leave pots and pans unattend
ed.
• Give portable space
heaters plenty of space, at
least 3 feet from an3d;hing that
will bum.
• Keep lighters and matches
away from children. Buy
child-resistant lighters.
• Use electricity safely.
Unplug an appliance when it
smokes or has an unusual
smell. Replace cracked or
frayed electrical cords. Don’t
overload extension cords or
run them under rugs.
• To escape a fire, crawl
under the smoke.
• If your clothes catch fire,
don’t run. Stop where you are,
drop to the groimd, cover your
face with your hands and roU
over and over to smother the
flames.
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Medal of Honor long overdue for vets
Continued from page 1A
free.”
A single tear rolled down
Baker’s left cheek as he listened
to! Clinton. He received a stand
ing ovation as he entered the
East Room and took a seat
before a crowd that included
Defense Secretary William
Perry, Veterans Affairs
Secretary Jesse Brown, retired
G^n. Cohn Powell, Joint Chiefs
Chairman John Shalikashvili
and a number of soldiers in uni
form.
Baker said he never thought
about receiving the Medal of
Honor - the military’s highest
award for bravery in battle -
because he considered his heroic
exploits his duty.
“I was a soldier and I had a job
to do,” he said.
But Clinton said Baker and
the others belong alongside the
nation’s greatest war heroes,
including Sgt. Alvin York, Eddie
Rickenbacker and Audie
Murphy.
“It’s a long time coming,” said
Fox’s widow, Arlene Fox of
Houston. She said she harbors
no bitterness toward the Army
for its treatment of her hus
band, who is buried in
Whitman, Mass. “I don’t dwell
in negativism. It’s a very proud
day.”
Rivers’ commanding officer,
former Capt. David J. WiUiams,
said he wrote a medal recom
mendation for Rivers and felt
humiliated when it was denied.
“The Germans, I knew my
enemy. But racism is a hard
enemy to defeat,” Williams said.
“This man was a cut above. He
was a great soldier.”
Baker was a 25-year-old heu-
tenant leading his platoon
through a maze of German
bunkers and machine gun nests
in hopes of capturing an enemy
stronghold near Viareggio, Italy.
German artiUeiy began to rain
down, and the commander of
Baker’s all-black company in
the 92nd Infantry Division went
for reinforcements. Baker and
his men stayed behind and beat
back three enemy attacks; two-
thirds of them were killed or
wounded.
When he realized reinforce
ments were not coming. Baker
ordered his surviving men to
retreat. They destroyed two
Ebonics a hot topic in, out of classroom
Continued from page 1A
Oakland’s intentions.
like most adults, students are
skeptical of any plan to accept
Ebonics in the classroom.
Oakland officials say that was
not their intent. Neither is their
plan a scheme to get additional
f^eral monies.
According to the school district,
itimerely plans to educate teach
ers about Ebonics to better pre
pare them to work with African
American students.
Oakland’s plan follows a four-
year slide in reading and lan
guage scores among students.
"Die district is 53 percent African
American and 71 percent of
black students are classified as
lacking basic communication
skills.
The Oakland program came
out of a study commissioned laist
year to deal with the sharp drop
in test scores.
“The Oakland Unified School
District is not replacing the
teaching of Standard American
English with any other lan
guage,” district officials respond
ed after initial and widespread
criticism to the proposal. “The
District is not teaching Ebonics.”
Instead, the district maintains,
it “is providing its teachers and
parents with the tools to address
the diverse languages the chil
dren bring into the classroom.
The district’s objective is to build
on the language skills that
African American students bring
to the classroom without devalu
ing students and their diversi
ty.”
'There Eire no plans to attempt
a similar program in Charlotte
or stuTounding areas.
But misimderstanding of the
Oakland’s intentions aside, a
separate debate concerns the
proper status of Ebonics or
Black English in the American
society.
A growing body of academic
research has accepted Black
English as a separate language,
with roots in the West African
languages. Some scholars are
now stud3dng what happens to
those who speak it in the educa
tional ^stem.
But many scholars remain
skeptical.
Duke University professor Lee
D. Baker thinks Oakland offi
cials are seeking a unique
method to raise more money and
the issue is “more political and
economic than it is cultural.”
“Ebonics is not a language,”
Baker, a professor of cultural
anthropology, said. “It is one of
many variations that there are
within the English language. As
African Americans we have a
rich language pattern that is
part of our culture, an integral
part of our culture. We should
teach parents and kids that
there is nothing wrong with the
language, it just should not be
spoken in a job interview, for
example. Tax dollars should be
used to teach standard
American English.”
Baker has written about the
subject of cultural linguistics,
focusing on forms of address.
Johnson C. Smith University
professor Donald Mager, who
includes a unit on Black English
in his course on the English lan
guage, said the media misin
formed readers and viewers
about Oakland’s intentions.
“The media got it aU wrong at
the beginning,” he said. “A lot of
people think slang is Black
English. 'That is not the case. A
dialect stays the same from gen
eration to generation.”
Black EngUsh meets criteria
for language used by linguists,
Mager said, including a static
grammatical structure and its
use in written discourse. Mager
noted that while Black English
is not often foimd in newspapers
or magazines, it is often used in
hterature, including the award
winning writings of Langston
Hughes and Gwendol5Ti Brooks
as well as dramatic productions.
“If you put Langston Hughes’
poems in a standard literature
book, you may need some foot
notes, like you would with
Shakespeare,” Mager said.
Mager makes a distinction
between Black English and
Ebonics, which he says deals
mainly with the sounds of the
language.
Students who speak Black
English don’t understand the
words they are sounding out
when they begin learning to
read. “They don’t recognize the
word because that’s not the way
they pronounce it,” Mager said.
“The child knows ‘dis,” not “this.’
When seeing ‘this’ in the first
grade reader, they read it cor
rectly, but do not know it as the
same as the word they know as
‘dis.’”
“The teacher hears the child
say ‘this,’ and assumes they are
learning to read properly, but
they are not.
“Ebonics wants to help kids
bridge that gap,” Mager said.
“The teacher has to translate
words back into words they
know from their spoken back-
groimd. If teachers are not sensi
tive to that, they don’t recognize
that’s why the child is not learn
ing to read.
“I understand the program is
to get teachers better prepared
to deal with students coming
into school from a black back
ground...to cmderstand that if
German machine gun nests on
the way out.
Baker served 28 years in the
Army, retiring in 1968. He
worked for the Red Cross and
ultimately moved to northern
Idaho, where he enjoys hunting.
He laughed Monday at the
memory of his confimntation last
year with a mountain hon that
was stalking him.
“He’s in the freezer,” Baker
said.
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the student is not getting it, it is
not because the student is lazy
or ignorant.”
'The West Charlotte students
agreed much of their problem in
learning English grammar could
have been solved with interven
tion in elementaiy school.
“Grammar should be instilled
in elementary school,” said
Amber Harper, a 17-year-old
West Charlotte senior. “They
didn’t cover a lot of stuff. In high
school, they are talking about lit
erature. 'I^ey need to focus on
grammar.”
After acknowledging the diffi
culty with high school grammar,
the students engaged in a
lengthy discussion of where
Ebonics and other cultural fac
tors fit into the educational pic
ture.
Amber said how a students
talks can lead to labeling by
teachers, who then don’t work as
hard to teach that student.
“I was labeled as a bad student
(because of her attitude),” she
said of her earlier schooling. “I
moved from class to class.
Teachers didn’t want to teach
me because they heard I was a
bad student. A lot of teachers
are fike that. 'They put labels on
you.”
Amber’s classmates agreed
that the relationship between
teacher and student played a
major part in how well student
perform in the classroom.
Shirma Stover, 17, said she
would get mad with her third
grade teacher when she would
present lessons in a way she
couldn’t understand.
“I had the attitude that if she
didn’t teach it a certain way, I
resisted,” Shirma said. “I’d get
mad with her. I wouldn’t do (the
work).”
“If you don’t have caring
teacher willing to work with you
enough to help you with gram
mar or whatever, you are not
going to learn,” Shirma said.
“English is the hardest language
to learn.”
Ursula McLean said students
must also work harder. “It goes
both ways,” she said. “Students
have to be willing to learn and
teachers have to be willing to
teach. Students take teachers
for granted...and are (some
times) disrespectful.”
Added Meredith, “Teachers
remember that at grade time.”
Coties Cuthbertson,, 17,
agreed, but added, “Respect is
something that is earned.”
Cuthbertson even ventured
that that’s one way Ebonics
could help students, “because if
you see the teacher trying, you
will work harder. Teachers need
to learn how to help the kids
more.”
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Amay James Montessoii Elementary 343-5550
2414 Lester Street • 'Thursday, January 16, 1997 • 9:30-11:00 A.M.
Ashley Park Math/Science & Technology Elementary • 343-6018
2401 Belfast Drive * Friday, January 10, 1997 • 10;00A.M.
Bruns Avenue German Immersion and Year-Round Elementary • 343-5488
601 South Bruns Avenue • Friday, January 17, 1997 • 8:45-10:00 A.M.
Chantilly Visual and Performing Arts Elementary • 343-5520
701 Briar Creek Road • Wednesday, January 15, 1997 • 10:00-11:00 A.M.
Cochrane Communication Arts and Academic Studies Elementary • 343-6460
6200 Starhaven Drive • Wednesday, January 15, 1997
Druid Hills International Baccalaureate Elementary • 343-5515
2801 Lucena Street • 'Thursday, January 16, 1997 9:30-11:00 A.M.
First Ward Accelerated Learning Academy • 343-5427
401 E. Ninth Street • 'Thursday, January 16, 1997 • 9:15 A.M.
Hawthorne Traditional Elementary • 343-5490
1411 Hawthorne Lane • Monday, January 13, 1997 • 9:00-11:00 A.M.
Irwin Avenue Open Elementary • 343-5480
329 N. Irwin Avenue • Wednesday, January 15, 1997 • 9:30 A.M.
Lincoln Heights Intemational/Glohal Studies and Learning
Immersion/Academically Gifted Elementary • 343-6067
1900 New castle Street • 'Tuesday, January 14, 1997 • 12:00-1:00 P.M.
Oakhurst Paideia Academy Elementary • 343-6482
4611 Monroe Road • Wednesday, January 15,1997 • 8:30 A.M.
Olde Providence Communication Arts and Academic Studies Elementary • 343-3755
3800 Rea Road • Wednesday, January 15,1997 • 9:00-10:15 AM.
Piedmont Open Middle • 343-5435
1241 E. 10th Street • Wednesday, Jahuary 15,1997 • 8:45-10:15 A.M.
Sedgefield Japanese Immersion Elementary • 343-5826
700 Marsh Road • 'Thursday, January 16,1997 • 9:00-10:00 A.M.
University Park Visual and Performing Arts Elementary • 343-5178
2400 Hildebrand St. • 'Thursday, January 16,1997 • 10:00-11:00 AM.