Oroville High teacher Marta Shaffer astonishingly tells students GRAMMAR is rooted in 'white supremacy'

ALSO READ

Who is Flint? Outrage as teacher brags about showing kids books on BDSM, Grindr, orgies and dildos

Amber Parker: Teacher fired for telling students 'don't judge people because they wanna have sex with a 5-year-old'

Shaffer reportedly believes expectations for students to use proper grammar and syntax were part of the White supremacy culture that was deeply entrenched in the US education system. "I try to undermine that B.S. in my classroom as much as I can," she said, adding, "We study linguistics and the rules that we actually use to communicate instead of the made-up rules that White supremacy created for when we write papers and stuff, which is what scholars call the 'language of power.'"

Fox News reported how the teacher lauded students for including the so-called "AAVE" language – African-American Vernacular English – in their academic essays. "As an educator, I am constantly worried if I'm the problem. What do I mean by that? Well, public education is an institution that upholds lots of problematic systems in our society like white supremacy, misogyny, colonization, etc," she continued. "Well, let's look at how we write essays [where we] start with an introduction that includes a thesis, always cite your sources, use transition words like ‘however’ and ‘therefore.’ These are all made-up rules. They were created by Westerners in power. Which got me thinking, what if I started my school year with a unit honoring how we talk rather than teaching students how to write properly."

In another post, Shaffer reportedly included a prompt that said a student's "codes" -- meaning how they interact with family or friends -- were "just as important, if not more than important" than an employer's expectations on how their employee communicates. "Just because your teachers, your professors, and your boss may expect you to write and speak in a certain way that may not be natural to you, does not mean that your more natural… languages are not important," she insisted. "They are just as important, if not more important than the ‘language of respectability.’"

TOP STORIES

Kirstie Alley dead at 71: Actress once revealed how Scientology saved her from lethal cocaine addiction

Who is Marlena Christensen? Chris Christensen says wife ruined career in CHILLING note before Disneyland suicide

The language educator said that she felt like a "cringe white lady" while "teaching students of color" about linguistics. "Did I worry I was being a White savior? Absolutely. Was it uncomfortable? Definitely. But a lot of my students come here, and they're uncomfortable with the white mainstream culture of public school life. So I think it's good for them to see their teacher deal with linguistic discomfort, too," she said. Shaffer also claimed that the IQ bell curve and the SAT were "racist," adding, "The writers of these tests were made up almost entirely of White people… and they still are." According to NBC 24, the organization Parents Defending Education has listed Shaffer's video as an "incident" worthy of highlighting. The group has cited the California teacher's "incident" as an example of "indoctrination" and "critical race theory & equity."