Standard rules commonly implemented in schools nationwide are to raise your hand, be respectful, and follow directions. Some teachers want to add a new one that has sparked discourse online: banning slang in the classroom. For educators like Angela Santalo − a middle school science teacher at a Catholic private school in Miami − prohibiting slang in her class was necessary.
In March, she shared a TikTok video of a presentation of forbidden words, including "skibidi toilet" and "rizz." "As the year continues to go on, I'm going to add more to this list, but if you're in my class, I don't want to hear this," Santalo said. "If you say any of these words, infraction.
We're all intelligent, so let's start sounding intelligent." In her comments were other teachers who understood her stance: "6th grade teacher here 100% agree!!," one user wrote. Santalo said she initially created it after her students repeatedly used the lingo in her class.
"All the grades collectively were saying it," Santalo told USA TODAY, referring to her sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. "What prompted me to do that is I was hearing it an insane amount of times. I had to do what I had to do to put an end to it.
" Slang in the classroom? Just vibe, more parents, teachers say in survey Experts argue that prohibiting slang in the classroom will mostly impact Black students Earlier this year, a photo of a ban list created by an unidentified teacher circulated online. Using the words/phrases "Just vibe," "standing on business," "you ate that up," and "cap" could result in the student writing a short essay. "The gibberish some of you choose to use is improper English and sometimes inappropriate for an academic setting," the teacher stated.
"This is an educational institution, and you will carry yourself as scholars in my classroom!" According to a recent survey conducted by Preply, 78% of kindergarten to 12th-grade teachers believe they should have the authority to police students' language in the educational space. However, 2 in 5 teachers opposed bans on slang in their classrooms. The company surveyed 1,000 parents of kids in kindergarten to 12th grade and 201 teachers about the impact of slang on learning and writing.
Experts and teachers who are against slang bans argue that such rules could disproportionately impact Black and other students of color. Although much of the slang comes from TikTok, other words also stem from African American Vernacular English, or AAVE. "It just baffles me how each and every year, we find new ways to punish students, particularly Black students," said Dr.
Bettina Love, an author and professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. "This is just another form of punishment. This is just another way to be punitive and to be anti-Black within our schools.
" "Why can't we teach students that we can have all these ways of speaking? You don't have to ban it, but you could say, 'Hey, this is how we formally write; this is how we speak for an interview.' There's no reason to ban it because when you ban something, that means there's punishment on the other end of it," she continued. Student: 'Yo, that's cap.
' Teacher: 'Tell me more.' Matthew Kay, a high school teacher in Philadelphia, says the most beloved conversations in his classroom are when students can express themselves freely and communicate in a language that they are familiar with. "I'll be in class, and we'll be talking about a book, and a character will say something, and the kid in the back will shout, like, 'Yo, that's cap.
' And I'm like, 'Tell me more,'" Kay recalled. He continued, "What annoys me about this particular discourse is that it poisons moments that I find to be some of the most beautiful classroom moments ever." In the Preply survey, 36% of teachers believe that allowing students to use slang respects their cultural identity.
When teachers remove that privilege, according to Love, "you're telling them that their culture is less than, and you're telling them that their culture should be banned." "Any study of language shows that language changes and adapts, and for a [teacher] to outright ban an evolution of language in class is silly," Kay added. "It's worse because it's like pretending to be something you're doing for academic reasons, but it's one of the most anti-academic stances a teacher can take.
" According to Santalo, her goal is for her students to choose their words more wisely in her class. She adds that most of the banned vocabulary stems from random memes with no significance and nothing to do with culture, race, or ethnicity. And she has since seen improvement.
"I think the fact that I banned it from my class allowed them to gain the self-control like 'Oh, I can't say Skibidi Toliet every five seconds,'" Santalo explained. "It..
.taught them to refrain and hold back a little bit, which is good because in a classroom, ultimately, you're there to learn. You're not there to make a show or make people laugh.
We have to learn. " Teachers should evolve with the times, one expert says Love argued that more conversations about education need to center around more pressing topics, such as the national teacher shortage and student attendance issues since the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, how other points of contention like hair discrimination or aggressive dress codes continue to isolate students of color.
Love questioned how the slang discourse "improves any of the real issues that are impacting our students and our public education system." According to the survey, nearly 50% of teachers said they were open to taking a class on studying slang. On TikTok, a community of teachers has emerged to help other educators learn the meaning of popular slang terms to keep up with their students.
For Kay, he asks his students for context clues and follows through with their recommendations, like movies or videos, to understand their references. "It's a fun interaction for me to say, 'Hey, I have no idea. We should explain that,'" Kay said.
"It's a conversation starter, which I think is cool." "We have so many larger issues to deal with in education; I can't imagine anyone wasting their brain space on kids using slang," he said, echoing Love's sentiments. Love said the job of an educator is evolving, and more teachers need to consider their students before making specific policies.
"Teachers should have to go out and learn it on their own," she said. "These students are coming into your classroom. You have a cultural disconnect, so your job is to figure it out so you can have more in common and understand your students so that you can engage with them.
" Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected].
