Second Grade Language Teacher Criticized For Having A ‘Speech Impediment’ — ‘She Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Teach Young Kids’
Should this teacher be allowed to teach phonics?
PeopleImages.com - Yuri A | Shutterstock A popular creator on TikTok, known as Miss Dani, has recently made the switch from typical lifestyle content to sharing her journey as a first-year teacher. While she’s become a beloved creator in many regards, with a unique voice and bubbly personality, comments have shifted to attacking her for her career choice.
What she calls an “accent,” and others argue is a “speech impediment,” has become the topic of discourse in recent weeks, especially following her “first day of the school year” vlogs in which she revealed she’s teaching phonics to second graders.
The first-year language teacher is being criticized for having a 'speech impediment’ while teaching phonics to second-grade students.
“Everyone I know thinks it’s so cute, and they love it,” Dani said about her “accent,” defending herself against a critic’s comment from early August. “There are 11 of us grandkids in our family, and 9 of us talk like this. Although I’m teaching phonics this year, I think I’ve figured it out.”
In the midst of documenting her first week in the classroom, comments and critical videos continue to pop up, both invalidating her abilities as a teacher and making assumptions about her voice.
As she and her family members have mentioned several times on social media, the jokes and critiques about their voices don’t hurt them — “We love our voice,” Dani admitted. “Keep making jokes… We just laugh at them.”
After turning the comments off on her page, Dani can focus entirely on her classroom and students, whom she said she’s already “bonded with” this week.
“I just love them,” she added. “They all said how much they love me.”
However, that hasn’t stopped people online from dedicating hours to picking apart her voice.
“Having an accent doesn’t make you qualified,” one commenter wrote under the teacher’s video. “She 100% should not be teaching phonics … Being nice has nothing to do with teaching properly.”
"I had a speech impediment and spent 8 years in speech therapy many times a week," another user candidly shared. "I would have been really tripped up if I spent time around a teacher who spoke the same way I was working so hard to correct."
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Still, many online defended Dani and her ability to teach phonics.
While armchair experts on TikTok attacked this teacher and argued that her “speech impediment” makes her unable to do her job, true speech therapists and language experts agree that her ability to teach phonics to students isn’t undermined by her voice.
Not only can she use videos to demonstrate sounds she has difficulty pronouncing, but the process of teaching phonics involves a multi-dimensional approach — not just repetition from the teacher.
Furthermore, untrained and uneducated substitutes with little experience are ushered in to teach at understaffed schools, yet people and parents online are concerned about a dedicated, trained, and passionate young woman pursuing a teaching career. Isn’t that exactly the kind of devotion everyone’s been yearning for?
Amidst the overwhelming criticism and hate Dani has gotten on her page, other people in her family have taken to social media to defend her — including her sister Jadyn Carle. “We all went to speech therapy … so no, it did not work,” she admitted. “Clearly, we still talk the way we do, but we also love it … It makes us who we are.”
Inclusion, whether it’s physical ability, speech, language, or skin color, is essential in schools and educational institutions. It teaches kids empathy, understanding, and compassion in ways that can be difficult for many in adulthood. Difference, without interaction, only creates a divide.
Other creators online, including a speech therapist named Savannah, have made videos defending Dani, while “haters” making claims of incompetence only delete theirs.
“If you think that a teacher who can’t say their ‘R sounds’ shouldn’t be a teacher — that an ‘R sound’ completely discounts their abilities in all other areas in life — you are ableist,” she argued in her video. “I’m not going to explain … Think about it.”
She also insisted that Dani might not even have a true speech impediment that affects all aspects of her voice — “I hate that term,” she added. “It’s just a de-rhotacized /r/ sound.”
While speech therapy typically “fixes” this /r/ sound, it’s an articulation disorder that can be difficult to unlearn, especially for someone whose entire family speaks similarly.
Speech therapy is also often intensive, costly, and time-consuming. Suppose it’s not accessible to an individual. Does that make them less able to pursue a certain career or hold a level of professionalism compared to others who “speak the right way?" Everyone is inherently different, and “the right way” is an exclusionary construct, not a reality that truly reflects people’s abilities.
With the help of other teachers, technology, and curriculums, Dani will be able to teach her students in the way that’s both best for them and for her. “Never in my career as a speech therapist have I ever had a kid who copied their teacher,” Savannah added. “She’s going to be perfectly fine.”
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories