This paper explores the long and winding road to integrating linguistic approaches to vernacular dialects in the classroom. After exploring past roadblocks, the author shares vignettes and classroom practices of her collaborator, Rachel Swords, who has succeeded in bringing Contrastive Analysis and Code-switching to her second and third-grade students (children 7 and 8 years old) in urban Virginia, in the southeastern US. The author then shares principles that have allowed her to successfully defuse social and political concerns of principals, central school office administrators, teachers, students, parents, politicians and reporters, as she shows how to use tools of language and culture to teach Standard English in urban areas. (Contains 3 figures.)