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| Joined: | Sat Jun 14th, 2008 |
| Location: | Boyertown, Pennsylvania USA |
| Posts: | 407 |
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As a secondary English teacher, I can agree and disagree with you about kids' grammar skills today. I'll admit, though, that I'm not of the strict grammarian school (teaching grammar out of a grammar textbook isn't "in" in English teaching today
) and tend to find grammar "sticks" better when kids learn/use it in their writing, rather than by rote. I've found that, on the whole, by 8th grade (the level I teach), most kids have picked up enough grammar rules to suffice sufficiently. Keep in mind that these kids, unlike, say for example, me, have grown up with texting and email, and whether one agrees or not with it, there is a different set of grammar rules for those two kinds of communication--basically, NO rules for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, etc. And except for the occasional use of "cuz" or "u" for because and you, I don't find that the kids I teach (avid texters, all) have a hard time differentiating between recreational writing (i.e. texting) and classroom writing. So I tend to think that the way kids write as texters and emailers is a deliberate thing, consciously or unconsciously.
That said, there are always lousy spellers and grammar students, both in school and long past school age, just as there are lousy drivers. And I tend to think that it made a huge difference whether a person was "educated" in the time of the Civil War, or not. When I read Civil War letters, especially, I get a kick out of the spelling, etc.--sort of like a puzzle. And I have to admit, I'm glad I didn't have to teach Forrest, for many reasons, his grammar being only one.
My two cents. . .
Pam