ABSTRACT
Nursery schooling can be adequately justified on the grounds that it provides relief for mothers, removes the child from the often stultifying confines of the family and brings forward the age at which the child begins to develop into a genuinely social being outside the family environment. In practical terms, sociolinguistics points to a systematic attempt to foster a much higher degree of acceptance of linguistic diversity. The real challenge for teachers is to reject the stereotyping and labelling. The tends to pervade teaching at all levels, from the nursery school to the university, and that requires a return to the concept that all normal children are broadly similar in terms of educability, provided that their capacity to work and learn is not undermined by unsatisfactory material conditions, such as malnutrition or over-crowding in the home. A far greater problem is the stereotyped judgements associated with various accents and dialects, including the standard dialect and RP.
