As a student in the North Texas Now program, I can attest to the face that college professors are generally much different compared to high school teachers. I’ve found that they are usually much more liberal, and as a left leaning person, my professors have provoked a lot of different thoughts in me throughout my two-year experience in this program. One that sticks with me the most is my literature professor’s choice not to grade our papers for grammar due to her belief that it is inherently racist. 

Throughout our K-12 careers, we are conditioned to believe that there is a right and a wrong way to speak English. Grammar is one of the first concepts we learn in preparation for proficient reading and writing skills. But my UNT professor, Dr. Reis, has a completely different take on the subject.

Reis believes that there is no right or wrong way to speak or write, but rather the way in which you do so depends on your cultural background. For example, AAVE is a recognized dialect that many Black people naturally use in everyday life, which naturally makes it difficult to separate their spoken vernacular from their writing. Reis recognizes this, and chooses to embrace this fact rather than penalize us for it.

Take for another example those whose first language isn’t English or still may not be proficient in it at the high school level. Why should they be punished for their cultural identity and circumstances when it is universally recognized that English is one of the most difficult languages to learn? It truly makes me think about how the idea of a correct or incorrect way of speaking and writing can very well be considered a tool of white supremacy.

It begs the question, does the common American curriculum teach us that all voices matter, except those that don’t speak the “standard” dialect of English? What even makes what is taught in school the standard anyway? I believe that there shouldn’t be a standard, because all voices matter regardless of how firm their grasp is on English.