The Random Thought Post

Grammar is a subject that confuses me, and not in an understanding it kind of way, but in the way that I’m confused about my own feelings towards the subject. On the one hand I think it’s a tremendously valuable thing to know to be able to write well, however on the other hand I think it’s a waste of time to teach it in schools. The reason why I believe this is, for the most part, based on my own personal experience with the nasty subject of grammar. All throughout my years in grade school, any class I had that was primarily about grammar was torture to me. I hated grammar. I despised grammar. It was torture, and not because I didn’t understand it. It was because I did get it, and it felt like such a waste of time to me because there were so many other things we could’ve spent learning about in class that we didn’t have a chance to all because of stupid grammar class. And the reason why I understood grammar back then was because I read. I read a lot. And so I was able to build up the pattern recognition system that told me when something was wrong and when something was right.

However, I still consider grammar a valuable tool to know and understand when writing; because it helps you make sense of your thoughts and communicate them in a clear and concise manner. Without grammar we would have no uniform way to communicate in written form, because then it would all be a matter of personal preference. But the way it has been taught in school is much like what the world would be without it. The grammar classes are not uniform and rather seem to be taught through personal preference and in my opinion, it just isn’t working. However, I don’t know how to fix it either. I think the model Dr. Kemp champions, the peer-editing model, is a good way to start, but I don’t think it’ll solve all the problems either, because at the end of the day the students still don’t know how to discover and fix bad grammar. They can only make an educated guess that something is wrong, and that is definitely important, but it still doesn’t solve the fact that they don’t know the grammar. I think the problem lies in the fact that the students don’t read anymore. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the kids just don’t read. And it’s sad.

I don’t know. I still have all these thoughts on the matter coursing through my head and I’ve yet to make sense out of them. Solving the matter of teaching grammar involves lots of things, things that I haven’t considered and things that I don’t even know about. But I think one of the biggest issues is getting the students to read again. I love reading and I don’t see how anyone couldn’t love reading. But that’s a post for another day.