the language of learning, and the learning of the language

I'm becoming aware of the cultural differences in myself from my students, mostly through the language we use.

For example, there are certain words that I do not have in my vocabulary - or rather that I choose to never use. They are hate-filled words that have been used to subjugate and harm people in all the history of the word. In the micro-culture of the high school I'm teaching at, the "N"-word is thrown about as a greeting. Some students do not place the vile associations with it that most others do.

I have come down hard on them, and forbidden use of that word around me. Some first responses I have received were, "I am one, why can't I use the word?", and "it doesn't mean to us what it meant to you". This opened up a discussion of self-respect and perception. Immediately, I pointed out that, "no, I don't think you are one, and I'm sorry that you don't respect yourself enough to agree." A brief hisotry of the word, its context, and how it has been used to de-humanize people has had a few of my students reconsidering the use of the word. Bad habits are difficult to change. While this week I have spent allowing students to rephrase and choose a different word when I hear profanity - and that word - I also warned them that continued use of ethnic, religious, or racial slurs will mean that they will write me a ten page paper on the history, context, meaning of the word, historically, culturally, and HOW OTHERS PERCEIVE IT - including footnotes and bibliography. It's nipping the issue in the bud.

On the flip side of that coin, idioms have evolved in this microculture, too. For example, I approached a table of my female students who were chatting and wasting studio time - nothing begun for the day yet. I asked them about their projects and told them to "get cracking" - (get to work). In this culture, the 'crack' is slang for the female sexual anatomy, so apparently (and unknowingly) I told my group of young ladies to "get cracking", or start masturbating. My new phrase is now "get to work".