DW 1b

One of the ideas what stuck out to me from our readings was mych #3 in Leah A. Zuidema's "Myth Education: Rationale and Strategies for Teaching Against Linguistic Prejudice." The myth states that standard english is better than all other varieties of english. Leah asks us about what really is "good" and "bad" english. She also talks about how we think that only the most educated and intelligent people speak perfect standard english all the time. In reality, does anyone actually speak this type of english?

All throughout my school years teachers have taught us to use standard english. They made sure we knew the proper grammar and spelling. We had to put things in the correct order all the time. These teachers pounded into our heads that if we could not use this standard english all the time then we would not be successful. We were always corrected if we said something wrong and papers were always graded on how perfect our grammar was. It is hard to be perfect all the time. Especially when away from school no one uses that standard english because it is too formal.

When I think back to high school I can remember the paper that I wrote that I am most proud of. It was first semester of my sophomore year and we had to write a paper on a moment in our life that changed the way we looked at things. I knew exactly what I wanted to write about and how I was going to do it. When I sat down to write that paper it was easy and I loved the way it sounded after my first draft. It said everything I wanted to say how I wanted to say it so I didn't bother doing too much editing besides a few commas here and there. I may have gotten points marked off for my improper grammar but even my teacher thought it was a fantastic paper with great content.

I don't really think it should matter so much if you use perfect standard english. I think communicating is really all about the content of what you say. I understand that people have to be able to understand you but its ok to not be so perfect all the time. There are and always will be times when it is necessary to use this proper english but I don't think its nearly as often as we are told. As long as we say what we mean and mean what we say it shouldn't matter that I misplaced a comma or switched a few words around. No one is perfect. Not even the smartest people in the world. There are so many dialects of english that who says we all have to use this "standard" english. We don't even really know what that is since no dialect is even close to that.