Yeah, yeah, but I remember my wife teaching all these grammar rules,
ways, whatever, to her students in Grade 6, for crying out loud,
knowing full well that they had received the same teaching the year
before, yet they almost all said they didn't know, remember any of it.
It's not necessarily the teachers' fault. Although it's true the
beating it into them bit is not allowed any more.
But I think it's also the fact that young people don't read that much,
so can't recognize the 'pattern' a sentence makes because they haven't
seen enough. And then, a lot of what the do read is poorly written,
full of errors....
Doug
On 24-Oct-07, at 7:09 AM, Frederick Pollack wrote:
> Over the weekend I finished grading the third and last short stories
> from my introductory creative writing class. Some of my kids have
> made themselves think about plot, characterization,
> showing-not-telling etc., but still, quite evidently, *cannot think*
> about the logic of a *sentence. Poem was merciful compared to what I
> could have written about their high-school English teachers - or, more
> fittingly, the people who decide what gets taught and how seriously.
> Every semester I ask if anyone has ever had a class that explicitly
> concerned itself with "grammar." One or at most two hands go up - and
> usually they both went to Catholic school. The nuns beat it into
> them.
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
(780) 436 3320
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
It's the first lesson, loss.
Who hasn't tried to learn it
at the hands of wind or thieves?
Jan Zwicky
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