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THE CCCC RESOLUTION concerning the of students to the language of their nurture has raised the significant question whether the policies implicit in the resolution would enable speakers and writers of non-English languages or nonstandard dialects to survive in, or cope with, the mainstream culture and economy. While such policy considerations are important, they must be balanced against the individual right claimed for students. In its present form, the resolution alleges this on linguistic, psychological, moral, and sociological or anthropological grounds. The words identity, moral advice, and diverse heritages, for instance, might be taken as the god words of available psychological, moral, and sociological or anthropological theories to which a majority of the CCCC membership is attracted and perhaps are adherents. I intend to suggest that in addition to these apparent bases for the claiming of the individual student's right, there are other sources of support for the claim. The CCCC resolution, viewed from a legal perspective, alleges on behalf of students a and, in elaborating that right, urges on States (and by implication on the federal government) a policy of neutrality with respect to language. That is, the resolution not only claims a but implies that in recognition of that the State must, in its language policy (at least in the schools), neither deny a student his language or dialect nor disparage it, and cannot develop and pursue policies that classify students solely on the basis of linguistic (verbal and non-verbal) attributes without compelling reason. The to the language of one's nurture claimed in the resolution