This in turn implies that changes in schools may involve teachers more
than children: that is, with reference to the two broad possibilities noted
earlier (in the section on school life), we are clearly coming out in favour of
the one which requires schools to adapt to pupils, rather than vice versa. At
the same time, however, we are also saying that this adaptation does not,
and should not, inevitably involve formal changes in curriculum, or in texts,
or in language forms used by teachers. Rather, it involves a more thoroughgoing
tolerance, which in itself is no small matter. The general point here is
that, given a tolerant atmosphere which is accepting of dialectal variations
and which understands them for what they are (non-standard rather than
substandard), children will define themselves linguistically vis-a-vis the
mainstream varieties as seems most appropriate. In addition (with the help
of parents perhaps), educators may consider ways in which the variety of
linguistic experiences children from different backgrounds bring with them
into the classroom may be used as a resource when planning curricula.