Grammar Comeback

The Washington Post did an article on how grammar is starting to come back to school classrooms. Their main focus was on a sophomore class, whose teacher is demanding they spend time on grammar every day. The students were not thrilled because for most of their schooling they weren’t taught grammar. The articles related, “Grammar lessons vanished from public schools in the 1970s, supplanted by a more holistic view of English instruction. A generation of teachers and students learned grammar through the act of writing, not in isolated drills and diagrams” (de vise). This is not any wonder to me. I did learn grammar in school, but I don’t think it was enough. I especially do not think Kent State does a good job of this. My major is integrated language arts, so I will be teaching student’s grammar in the future; yet I’m not required to take a grammar course here. I do not understand that at all, especially when a lot of schools are putting new teachers in charge of grammar lessons for freshman and sophomore students. A survey in the articles stated that not even 2/3 of students had ever studied grammar before taking the SAT (de vise). It’s no surprise then that so many students did so poorly on the grammar part. It was a good enactment by the board of the SAT to put together a third portion focused on writing, assembling, and disassembling sentences. I think the more pressure that we put on students to keep them accountable for grammar will make schools put more emphasis on teaching it. We use our language every day and if we don’t know how to use it correctly, then that will affect so much more of our lives than just an English test. Diagramming sentences are by no means fun, but I actually learned and still use the notes from my teacher that taught me how to do it, to figure out certain sentences today. Grammar requires building blocks. After a year, students should have improved and will learn that it won’t just gain them points on the SAT, but also on obtaining a job in the future.

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