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OPINION
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
PUBLISHED DAILY SINCE 1912
CRAIG LANG, Editor MARK OZIMEK, Business manager
SUSANNA LOOF, Managing editor DENNIS HAUPT, Retail sales manager
KIMBERLY CRABTREE, Editorial editor JUSTIN KNUPP, Technology coordinator
TOM EBLEN, General manager, news adviser JAY STEINER, Sales and marketing adviser
wednesday, January 29, 1997
Editorials
All the red tape of financial aid requires patience from students
The University of Kansas financial aid system can be inconvenient and confusing, but the staff is doing its best to make the process work for students.
Students should be understanding of the difficulties faced by financial aid staff members, who are trying to perform complex tasks with an outdated computer system.
"We're working with some pretty archaic information systems," said Alan Cerveny, acting director of the University Scholarship Center.
Although it is the University Scholarship Center that assists students in finding outside scholarships from businesses and non-University groups, the checks for those scholarships must be picked up at the office of Student Financial Aid in 50 Strong Hall, and they may not always arrive on time. This means that students must pay
The financial aid staff is doing its best to make the process work for students.
their fees to protect their enrollment and hand carry their scholarship checks to Carruth-O'Leary. This situation, although frustrating, cannot be remedied easily by the financial aid staff. The process is complicated because checks arrive late and often need to be endorsed by students before they can be applied to University charges. Before checks can be released to students, the University Scholarship Center has to post the awards to the Office of Student Financial Aid's computers to be considered in the application of federal financial aid.
"It's a convoluted process. We're
doing our best to streamline it," said Robyn Harris, acting associate director of the University Scholarship Center.
While these situations are frustrating for students, they are not the fault of the University's financial aid staff.
The gaps in the University's computer system often create these problems, and students must remember that these situations are frustrating for financial aid staff members as well. Believe it or not, these people are trying to help students.
"This office is full of people that want to see students succeed without finances as an impediment," Harris said.
Students who are frustrated by the complexity of the financial aid system should ask for help. They will find that most problems can be cleared up quickly and that the people who work in financial aid are happy to help them.
KELLI RAYBERN FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Program offers new vision to youth
Because — as with most things — a little prevention goes a long way, the people at Lawrence Teen Vision have the right idea. Their program offers Lawrence's youth an alternative to joining gangs.
Contriary to popular belief, Friday and Saturday nights aren't the times when children are most at risk of getting involved with gangs.The danger hours are from 3 to 6 p.m., after school has finished and before parents return home from work, according to the Koch Crime Commission.
Lawrence Teen Vision offers a safe way to fill those three hours. Unlike many gang-prevention programs, this program is an exciting and viable alternative.
With funds from city government, local businesses and area churches, Lawrence Teen Vision has created a
Lawrence Teen Vision should be commended for creating options for teens.
media center at the Heartland Theatre in the Heartland Community Church, 1031 New Hampshire St.
Starting March 3, children can drop in after school to learn how to design Internet web sites, create music videos and write music. They also will have the chance to produce radio and television shows.
"Gangs are about instant success and group belonging," said Paul Gray, the program director.
Lawrence Teen Vision incorporates many of things that attract children to gangs.
dren to work together to create finished products.
Gray also said that he hoped the program, which puts emphasis on creative activities rather than sports, would attract the 83 percent of teens who did not participate in after-school sports.
This program would encourage chil-
About 600 children in Lawrence are involved or close to being involved in gangs, Gray said. A program like Lawrence Teen Vision will reach teens before they join these ranks. That's essential because studies show that once children are involved in gangs, it's hard for them to get out.
Also, this program could save money that later would be spent on prosecuting, incarcerating and rehabilitating gang members.
Energy and money spent on prevention are well-spent. Lawrence Teen Vision should be commended.
LAURA WEXLER FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
KANSAN STAFF
NEWS EDITORS
LATINA SULLVAN . Associate Editorial
KRISTIE BLASI . News
NOVELDA SOMMERS . News
LESLIE TAYLOR . News
AMANDA TRAUGHBER . News
TARA TRENARY . News
DAVID TESKA . Online
SPENCER DUNCAN . Sports
GINA THORNBURG . Associate Sports
BRADLEY BROOBS . Campus
LINDSEY HENRY . Campus
DAVE BRETTENSTEIN . Features
PAM DISIMAN . Photo
TYLER WIRKEN . Photo
BRYAN VOLK . Design
ANDY ROHRBACK . Graphics
ANDREA ALBRIGHT . Wire
LZ MUSSER . Special sections
AERICA VAZEAY . News clerk
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AVERTISING HALL
HEATHER VALLER . . . . . . Assistant retail
JULIE PEDLAR . . . . . . Campus
DANA CENTENO . . . . . Regional
ANNETTE HOVER . . . . . National
BRIAN PAGEL . . . . . Marketing
SARAH SCHERWINSKI . . . Internet
DARCI McLAIN . . . Production
DENA PISCIOTTE . . . Production
ALISON PIERCE . . Special sections
SARA ROSE . . . . . Creative
DANA LAUVETZ . . Public relations
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Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and hometown if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
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Guest column
Ebonics bridges gap between languages
Appallingly shallow, the column *Ebonics* is inherently destructive, divisive, by Andy Rohrback on Jan. 14, betrayed its author's naivete about the nature of human language and the psyche of minority children.
the psyche of minority children Writing about Ehonics and these children,
Writing about Ebolons and Rohrbarg argued that "if someone is wrong, it's better to tell them and hurt them now than to allow their mistake to become normal practice." I do not know if this hurt-them-now technique cures shallowness. We do know, however, that insight increases knowledge, understanding and wisdom. I will, therefore, share insight.
I am an African American, literally: African by birth.
literally: African by birth, South-American (Venezuelan) by first naturalization and U.S. citizen by second naturalization. A graduate of the School of Hard Knocks, I have learned a few languages through the years. Although I claim no authority on anything, my own struggles as a student of languages have shown me the difficulties faced by many people throughout the world as they leave their mother tongues to embrace other languages that will allow them to communicate with larger groups.
Moreover, teaching languages to students at different levels also has helped me understand the problems of both teachers and students. The case of Ebonics in Oakland is a good case in point. Would-be teachers of second languages usually are required to study comparative linguistics, understand the difference between descriptive grammar and prescriptive grammar and appreciate cultural diversity. Why?
Everybody has a mother tongue. We call it the "mother" tongue because it is the language of one's mother or primary caregiver. As we develop as children, we form an emotional attachment to our mothers, and the "mother" tongue becomes a powerful symbol of attachment. Even in those who hate their mothers, the mother tongue functions the same way, as the frame of reference for any other language one learns from that point on.
Although the naive speak in terms of "wrong" or "right" languages (the "right" language usually being their own mother tongue or a variety close to it), linguistically, psychologically and morally, one's mother tongue simply is $is$. No matter how low its status in the eyes of society, this language is the means of socialization and communication between mother and child. Thanks to language, the helpless child survives and learns. If we accept Rohrback's suggestion that minority children's mother tongues are wrong, then it follows that the many mothers who let their children acquire minority mother tongues like Ebonics or Black English (classified as a "pseudo-language" by our pseudo-expert) or even Spanish in the United States are ipso facto guilty of child abuse or neglect.
language is the primary means of human communication, not only with one's family but also with teachers and peers at school, bosses and colleagues at work, and fellow citizens in the larger society. Once one leaves the family to embrace these larger groups, he or she is faced with a new language and communication style, unless one lives in a linguistically homogeneous society or one's mother tongue happens to be the standard language of the society. As language is also the vehicle of human knowledge and culture, for learning to occur in the classroom both the student and the teacher must join hands to bridge the gap. This bridging process is a real linguistic, psychological and human challenge for all those involved. Of this, the Oakland school board seemed to have some understanding; our writer seemed to have no understanding at all.
sentenced in the court.
Perhaps Rohrback had to write about something to fulfill his assignment. Choosing his logos, pathos and ethos, he tumbled on Ebonics. In his novice haste, however, he overlooked the main point: Public discourses that influence public opinion on vital human problems — like the welfare of minority children — are too far-reaching in their implications to be left to the whims of self-righteousness, arrogance and ignorant shallowness.
Donate Phunsel is a Lawrence postbaccalaureate student in psychology
Guest column
Linguists say Ebonics not incorrect English
For more than 30 years, linguistic research has addressed the claim that Ebonics, or Black English, is ungrammatical English. This research has shown consistently that Ebonics is not bad English or slang. Like all natural languages and dialects, Ebonics follows an intricate system of grammatical rules. Rohrback, like others, doesn't seem to know that Ebonics follows grammatical rules, and he clearly doesn't know how they work.
In his Jan. 14 column entitled Ebonics is inherently self-destructive, divisive, Andy Rohrback argued that it is better to let someone know they are wrong than to let the mistake proliferate. The Ebonics debate involves many complex social, political and educational issues that we cannot discuss here. However, as linguists, we wish to point out that Rohrback's column — like many recent columns and discussions in the media, including Karen Chandler's Jan. 15 editorial also in the Kansan — is based on serious misconceptions about language in general and Ebonics in particular.
Kohrback and Chandler's basic concerns were: 1. Ebonics is simply bad English ("slang," "English without verb conjunction") and; 2. The Oakland proposal to take Ebonics into account when teaching Standard English is inappropriate, will not be as effective as traditional methods for teaching Standard English and will lead to further division between Ebonics speakers and others.
For example, he incorrectly equates the Ebonics sentence, "I be walkin' to the store," with Standard English, "I am walking to the store," when the sentence actually means something like, "I walk to the store [every day/each morning/all the time...]"
There is a grammatical rule for *be* in Ebonics — it is used in sentences that describe actions or states that take place habitually. That is, Ebonics sentences like "I be tired" mean "I am habitually tired" or "I am always tired," and do not mean "I am tired right now." Ebonics *be* is not simply a replacement for *am*, *is*, *are*, etc. Rather, *be* adds the information that something takes place regularly.
This single example demonstrates the problem with traditional teaching methods that Oakland is trying to solve. If a teacher "corrects" the sentence "I be walkin' to the store" with "I am walking to the store," he or she has misunderstood the student and given the wrong correction. Surely
this is not the most effective way to teach Standard English grammar. However, if the teacher knows the grammar of Ebonics as well as the grammar of Standard English, he or she should be able to show the student how to translate correctly — from one to the other.
Indeed, there already is evidence that Oakland-style programs can be quite successful in teaching Standard English. Rohrback and Chandler's concerns about the appropriateness, effectiveness and potential divisiveness of the Oakland approach depend on the mistaken assumption that Ebonics is merely bad English. Because they don't realize that Ebonics and Standard English each follow a set of grammatical rules, and that these two sets of rules are somewhat different, they can't properly evaluate the potential benefits of comparing and contrasting the rules for forming sentences in Ebonics with the rules for forming sentences in Standard English, or the impact that such a program would have on students.
We urge everyone to learn some basic facts about Ebonics before forming any conclusions about it or about the Oakland decision.
Regardless of what you ultimately decide about using Ebonics in the classroom, perpetuating the myth that Ebonics is ungrammatical English is irresponsible.
We would argue that the widespread acceptance of this myth has hindered the general understanding of how languages work, has interfered with the formulation, implementation and evaluation of effective educational policies, and has furthered racial prejudice and division. We would further argue that the Oakland proposal is based on sound scientific research and should be commended. We challenge readers to investigate this issue themselves. We think that once they know the facts, they will agree.
Accurate information about Ebonics is readily available. A good starting point for finding relevant research is the website of the Linguistic Society of America, an organization of almost 7,000 linguists that recently passed a resolution on this issue. The resolution and a list of references can be found at www.lsadc.org/ebonics.htm
Daniel Leikwitz is a visiting assistant professor in the department of linguistics. Amy Schafer is a postdoctoral research associate in the department of speech, language and hearing.
Kansan Editorial Board Members
Karen Chandler
Drew DeGood
Gerry Doyle
Ashley Guerin
Lea Havis
Phong Hu
Cary Jones
Andrew Longstretch
Brian Masillonis
Cathy Pierce
Kelli Raybern
Ben Shockey
Cody Simms
Nicole Skalla
Meredith Toenjess
Laura Wexler
Sheldon Wilson
Nick Zaller
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