My Opinion on Students’ Rights to their Own Language

Amy Worthington

English 1100

Professor Young

September 20, 2016

           

“A Nation Proud of its diverse heritage and its cultural and racial variety will preserve its heritage of dialects.” This is a sentence taken from the resolution of language adopted by the members of the CCCC. The question that arises from this part of the resolution is if students should have the right to use their own language. In my opinion, the answer is yes.

            You are allowed

to say whatever you want to and speak the language that you feel most comfortable speaking. You can’t be afraid to speak up for what you believe in. If something really matters to you say it and you don’t need to be worried about the consequences. I know, you’re probably thinking that it’s not a good idea to say anything you want. But, the truth is that under the constitution you have the freedom of speech. You can basically say and do what you want to nowadays but there will be consequences which I think is unfair.

            Everyone is always telling us to be ourselves and say what we want to, yet when we are they judge us and we ultimately get hurt in the long run. Professors and teachers say that we are allowed to express ourselves, but I don’t feel like that is true. If you say something to a teacher that they find disrespectful you will be sent to the principal’s office to receive a punishment.  In college it’s not much different, you will be asked to leave the classroom and the punishment will be that you missed important notes.

            After an experience that I went through not long ago, I learned that we all have the right to use our own language. I didn’t use my language at the time of the incident because I was scared and weak, but I regretted not using my voice afterwards. A few weeks later I went back to the incident and I used my voice and it wasn’t too late because I did something about it. It’s never too late to go back to a situation and voice your opinion.

             

I found lyrics from Eminem and he sums up what I’m trying to say. The song is called “Say what You Say”:

Cause what you say is what you say

Say what you say how you say it whenever you saying it

Just remember how you said it when you were spraying it