Abstract This essay grows out of feeling torn between conflicting goals or obligations. I think most teachers of first year college writing courses also feel this conflict, and I experience it acutely as director of a university writing program. On the one hand, I feel an obligation to invite all my students to use their own language and not to make them conform to the language and culture of mainstream English (see “Students’ Rights to Their Own Language” [Committee]). On the other hand, I feel an obligation to give all my students access to the written language of power and prestige.
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