Laura's Blog

-  A person does not need to speak a prestige dialect in order to be intelligent. Intelligence is not measured by dialects. - Dialects change, and therefore does not define intelligence at any given time. - Dialects do not define a person's decency. - Non-standardized English should be included in schools because children can understand that there is more than one accent and dialect, and therefore they will not grow up distinguishing people in different classes due to their accents or dialects. This also creates a sense of diversity within a schooling community. - A person's dialect comes from where they were raised, is part of who they are, and therefore should they not be discriminated against for that. - Schools are for education and learning opportunities, not for discrimination. 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Q0PD0jXHg1RFJSNFFkYXphNWs/view?usp=sharing

The resurgence of endangered languages means that cultures can regrow and furthermore expand. Currently, the majority of fluent Irish speakers are under the age of 25. This means that at some point, the language was on the way to dying out. However, the adults taught their children the language and managed to begin saving the language. The possible extinction of a language becomes worrying when children no longer speak the language. When this began to happen in New Zealand, the elder Maori speakers made sure to teach the Maori children in order to save the language. The argument is that the loss of a language is loss of cultural identity. So when the number of Irish and Maori speakers decreased, the people knew they should teach the children and save the language. Both languages took this similar approach, meaning that language really does have cultural value, and they cannot have their culture without their language being involved. Timoti Karetu, head of the Maori Languag...