My wife and I had a disagreement recently about the ethical
duties of a teacher. I teach fourth-graders and maintain that if
a student mispronounces a word, it is my sacred duty to correct
the student. It's the dictionary or the highway as far as I'm
concerned. My wife says that regional accents (i.e., Boston, Deep
South, etc.) should be left uncorrected. Who's right? -- Michael
Leavenworth, San Diego
Whether sacred or profane, you are not Henry Higgins. You need
not eradicate every flinty New England consonant or honey-toned
Mississippi vowel. You should not strive to make your students
speak like network news anchors. It is when a student deviates
radically from the dictionary's description -- "libary,"
"eye-talian" -- that you must act. In such a case, you have an
obligation both to treat your students with respect and to teach
them standard usage, something you should explain from the
get-go: No knock on how kids in your neighborhood pronounce
things, but in class we must master the conventions of the larger
world.
Your object is not to compel your students to assimilate into
the dominant culture but to equip them with the knowledge to
excel in it. While ours is a living language, in flux and rich
with regional variations, some of which have connotations of race
and class, were your students to use "nucular" in a job interview
a decade hence, this would be regarded not as a charming
colloquialism but a mark of ignorance. (Although apparently not
as a bar to high office.)
But do not pester them about this on the playground. Another
lesson to impart is that we use different sorts of language in
different situations. Among our pals, we speak casually; we speak
more formally to adults; and we would speak more formally still
when introducing the queen or the pope to the ghost of Miss Helen
Hayes, first lady of the American theater, even in Boston or the
Deep South.
After my niece's first birthday party, her parents sent videos
and I uploaded them to YouTube for family members to view. My
sister-in-law sent me a stern note saying that unless images of
my niece are accessible only to people approved by her and my
brother, I may not post them. YouTube lets you restrict access,
so I complied, but isn't her request overprotective and unfair?
-- David, Los Angeles