Double Entry Journal #2

As I began reading, the first paragraph caught my attention and made me become more interested in reading the article. The author begins by telling of a time when a teacher referred to her student’s mother as being ignorant due to her hillbilly accent. “I knew she was ignorant just as soon as she opened her mouth!” (Purcell-Gates, 2002) She considered her to be ignorant because of her southern mountain dialect.

I am ashamed to admit that I am somewhat guilty of stereotyping people in relation to how they speak BUT not because of their accent. My biggest pet peeve is poor grammar! I grew up in a family of teachers; therefore I was always corrected and shamed for using poor grammar. I do not have perfect grammar, nobody’s perfect, but I sure do not say “We was…”, “He done…” etc.

If a person has an accent, they can still have proper grammar. I would never judge a person based on their accent. So, the story the author referred to caused me to have the strongest reaction to the article. No one should be judged because of having an accent, but by how well they speak. For example, if someone is applying for a job and is from the southern part of West Virginia, he or she should not be judged because of their accent but by how well they speak and use their grammar when answering the questions they are given, etc.

Another story that caught my attention was, the child who didn’t understand the concept of “silent reading”. “A little girl about two years old was sitting with her mother in the parents/children room at church one Sunday. Bored with the actual church service, this little girl asked her mother to read to her. Her mother, trying to focus on the service, put her off for as long as she could. “Read!” commanded the child, “read!” Her mother, silently following along in her bible, said “I AM reading.” “No!” said the two-year old. Reaching up with her hand, she opened her mother’s mouth and began to move her lips up and down. (Purcell-Gates, 2002) The things children say and do are amazing.

References:

Purcell Gates, V. (2002). As soon as she opened her mouth. In L. Delpit & J.K Dowdy (Eds.), In The skin that we speak: An anthology of essays on language culture and power. (Print: Anthology)

Related Resource:

Great source that can be used to review documents to check for incorrect grammar. I played around with it for a little while. Very neat.

http://www.grammarly.com/?q=grammar&gclid=COLbzPHI86oCFQUUKgod3HhFOQ