On the other hand, it is also the case that many working-class parents see in the school an avenue for the upward mobility of their children; far from wanting their children to leave, they may be most supportive of formal education in general and their children's scholastic progress in particular. Labov (1973), Ovando (1978) and others have pointed to the high educa- tional aspirations of lower-class and minority-group parents for their children. How would this translate into perceptions of a sociolinguistic sort? There is some evidence to suggest that parents often adopt a very common- sense and pragmatic view here. They may reject the idea that schools should conduct classes in non-standard dialect, or that schools should provide textbooks written in non-standard forms - suggestions put forward by some recent linguists and educators (see below)-because they wish their children to learn and use what they see to be the dialect of upward mobility. At the same time, however, they do not wish to see a return to the traditional school intolerance for any non-standard usage in class. Covington (1976), for example, has referred to the views of a group of black parents in Washington. They wanted teachers to tolerate their children's use of Black English Vernacular in the classroom, while at the same time they were strongly opposed to texts written in this form, and to teachers using it. In this, the parents were apparantly calling for what many have seen to be the most appropriate course of action (Edwards, 1979a).