This article addresses the harmful effects of language discrimination on children, in schools. To talk about these ideas, we use the term "linguicism, which has been discussed by language planners' sociolinguists, and applied linguists (Philippson, 1992; Skuttnab-Kangas, 2000), but is less well-known in the professional vocabulary of educators. Here, we define linguicism as discrimination against someone because of how s/he speaks, writes, or signs. Although language discrimination is less evident than some challenges confronting children around the world today, including poverty, hunger, health care, and safe housing, it does have lasting implications for children's emotional well-being and academic development, as well as their access to higher education, healthy relationships, and meaningful employment (Meyer, 2009). As language is the premier tool for self-expression, communication, and learning, it can be a target for prejudice and discrimination. As contexts where aspects of language use, such as vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, and handwriting, are carefully regulated, schools are often sites of language discrimination against children (Freire, 1998). Language is also a powerful marker of individual and collective identities, including membership in families and other groups (Anzaldua, 1987; Delpit&Dowdy, 2002; Guerra, 2007). Because language is so central to our lives, linguicism is closely related to discrimination based on other forms of identity, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality, class, and ability. For example, deriding the use of American Sign Language (ASL) or other sign languages might be tied to a person's feelings or beliefs about the deaf. School bans on indigenous languages around the world have been the result of negative views toward indigenous peoples. The backlash against proposals to include Ebonics in the curriculum of schools in Oakland, California, was rooted in the belief that African American varieties of English are not economically viable and therefore unsuitable for schooling (Smitherman&Villanueva, 2003).
