ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701060029
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BRIEFLY PUT
MUCH like Rural Appalachian, Black English is a spoken dialect, not a language of its own. Giving it a different name, "Ebonics," does not change that. And even if Black English were a separate language, not to teach standard English in America's schools would be to ensure children's continued isolation from - or at least to greatly restrict their opportunities for entering - the economic and social mainstream.
On that much, we and Del. Preston Bryant of Lynchburg agree. But with his proposal to bar Virginia's public schools from teaching nonstandard English as the equivalent of standard English, Bryant goes too far. It smacks of patronizing political posturing, and is a classic example of unnecessary legislation.
Virginia is not California. No school district in the Old Dominion has promoted teaching nonstandard English as the equivalent of standard English. None is likely to promote it. And if a district did, it almost surely would run afoul of state curricular standards - which is where any requirement like Bryant's, if needed at all, belongs more properly than in the state code.
Here's a better idea: How about a bill to ban the use of nonstandard English in the writing of state laws? Now that would be a service.
BOB DOLE hasn't been in the U.S. House for more than a quarter-century, or in Congress at all since resigning his Senate seat to devote full time to running for president last year as the Republican nominee. Nevertheless, Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan suggested this week that Dole would be an excellent choice for speaker of the House.
A nonmember as speaker, though apparently allowable under the Constitution, would be unprecedented. For that matter, for anyone to move from presidential-level politics to House-level politics would be highly unusual.
But not quite unprecedented. John Quincy Adams had actually served one term as president when elected to the House in 1830. He thereafter put in a distinguished 17-year career as a congressman from Massachusetts.
Is something similar in store for Dole? Probably not. Not only would it require enough House Republican defections to deny Newt Gingrich's re-election as speaker, but a spokesman for Dole said the former Senate majority leader's "future plans do not include further service in the House.'' Still, that's the kind of statement in politicalese that, translated into standard English, means "never say never."
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