the SNOOTlet is being punished for is precisely his failure to learn.” What has he failed to learn? That navigating the social world (especially in a democratic society) requires the ability to code-switch. The little A+ SNOOTlet is actually in the same dialectal position as the class’s “slow” kid who can’t learn to stop using ain’t or bringed. Exactly the same position. One is punished in class, the other on the playground, but both are deficient in the same linguistic skill—viz., the ability to move between various dialects and levels of “correctness,” the ability to communicate one way with
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