It is the habit of journalists to take the English language seriously. After all, their jobs depend upon a certain familiarity with the subject. This is why I cringed in pain when I first heard of Ebonics, also crudely called “black English.”

As you probably know by now, the Oakland school district sparked a heated debate when it decided to recognize Ebonics, literally “black sounds,” as a second language. It recognizes the failure to conjugate the verb to be — as in “We be goin'” — and many other forms of massacred English.

The intent of the school board in passing the resolution is unclear.

The initial proposal recognized Ebonics as a second language, equivalent to Spanish or Japanese. Now the board members say Ebonics is a mere “language-pattern.”

The initial proposal said the plan was to use Ebonics as a way of “imparting instruction to African-American students in their primary language.” Now the board members say teachers will simply be encouraged to use Ebonics as a “bridge” between student English and standard English.

The initial proposal suggested Ebonics was “genetically-based.” This suggestion has now been dropped because the school board meant only that Ebonics derived “from African languages” brought by slaves.

The initial proposal referred to Ebonics as the primary language for black students. This, too, has been dropped.

A memo accompanying the initial proposal stated that black students “shall be provided general funds and state and federal … programs” for bilingual education. The superintendent now says the school board will not seek state or federal bilingual funding.

It almost makes one wonder why these people are running a school district and writing policies about language use when they can’t even write a policy that clearly expresses their own ideas.

Speaking as a person who has been trained in the proper use of the English language, I cannot support the policy adopted by the Oakland school district.

I am not a linguistic anthropologist, but my heart tells me that Ebonics is not a language. Ebonics is not black English. It is bad English.

The same argument could be made for recognizing Cajun as an official language. It is a dialect spoken by a significant number of people in the South. Moreover, it has the added advantage of being completely unintelligible. Someone out there tell me that you can understand a word Justin Wilson said on Louisiana Cookin’.

Yet I doubt that anyone is racing to recognize Cajun as an official language.

The effect of the Oakland proposal on students in general, and black students specifically, could be damaging.

It tells black students that Oakland does not expect them to be able to speak standard English without the use of a “dumbed down” version. I know a few very articulate black students who would probably be insulted. Writer Maya Angelou is.

It tells all students that a lack of English comprehension will be tolerated. If there is one thing I have learned during my nearly six years of college study, it is that students will do no more than what is expected of them. As long as bad English is tolerated in the schools, the problem will exist.

While I cannot agree with methods employed by the Oakland school district, I sympathize with the board’s frustration over poor student performance. According to U.S. News & World Report, black students make up 53 percent of the student population in the district, but account for 71 percent of the special education seats and 64 percent of those who repeat a grade.

Unfortunately for Oakland and school districts across this country, the only time the public bothers to notice such problems is when it disagrees with the offered solutions.

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Theresa Wilson is a graduate student in political science at ISU from Dubuque. She is a second-year law student at Drake University.