The Ethicist: Classroom Language

By Cheryl Corley,

Randy Cohen

Published April 18, 2004 at 12:00 AM EDT

NPR's Cheryl Corley talks to Randy Cohen, who writes The Ethicist column for The New York Times Magazine, about the dilemma of Laura Meigs. She's a first-year teacher in rural Mississippi. Her instinct is to correct her students' incorrect grammar and keep them from using racial epithets she finds offensive, but she's heard criticism that in doing so, she may be demeaning their culture.

Cheryl Corley

Cheryl Corley is a Chicago-based NPR correspondent who works for the National Desk. She primarily covers criminal justice issues as well as breaking news in the Midwest and across the country.

See stories by Cheryl Corley

Randy Cohen

Randy Cohen was born in Charleston, S.C., and raised in Reading, Pa. He attended graduate school at the California Institute of the Arts as a music major studying composition.

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