The old English teacher in me is on a tear. Excuse me, but I
can't sit quietly by on this beautiful Florida
afternoon and let another day go by without complaining about some rampant grammar
no-no's.
I don't know about you, but I curdle inside when I hear somebody
say "between you and I" or "him and I." These gaffes are
coming from people who should know better - such as news anchors on television
and newspaper reporters. My mother, who taught Latin, would be appalled.
Are grammar rules not taught in school any more? Are
children no longer learning that only the objective case of pronouns, such as "him,"
"them," "us," "her" and "me," can
follow prepositions such as "with," "for," "in,"
"between," "among" and "to"? And only the
objective case of a pronoun can be the object of a verb, as in "I drove
him to the mall."
Subjective case pronouns such as "I,"
"he" and "she" can only be subjects of sentences, as in
"He and I went to the mall," but I often hear "Him and I went to
the mall." Ouch.
The big trouble comes when the subject of the sentence or
the object is compound - as in "He and I" or "him and me."
You wouldn't say, as I used to tell my college remedial English students,
"Him went to the mall" or "Sally went to the mall with I."
There, I've said it. Time to calm down now.
Do you come across grammar goofs that bug you? Please drop
me a comment or an e-mail.
I don't think grammar IS taught any more in schools--and to the extent that it is, it's too little, too late. Kids are expected to pick it up more or less by osmosis--which can actually work, but only if the student is a voracious reader.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of two high school English teachers. The first quarter of Mr. Henry's Honors English lit was essentially a grammar boot camp; he made us buy a copy of Strunk and White's Elements of Style (and would cringe because I'm not underlining or italicizing the title, because I don't have a font choice in this dialogue box), and graded our papers using the numbers of the rules in that book. Miss Hoy, in my AP English class, required us to write an in-class essay every Friday ("It has been said that comedy is social and tragedy is personal; attack or defend") and handed them back every Monday, with detailed comments on both our grammar and the logic of our arguments.
I'm not sure that many English teachers today have the training or the will to teach as rigorously as those two; most English teachers, like students, prefer literature to grammar. To be fair, I think that teachers today are so burdened by bureaucracy, endless IEP's, and teaching-to-the-test that they simply could not grade a pile of essays every weekend, even if they were willing to do it. And if they tried, they'd probably face the complaints of an army of parents who would object to the homework load.
I haven't had students living at home with me for many years now, but I do know that the two of them learned grammar at school, I think through writing, writing, writing, but also through exercises and class discussions. And they were corrected at home if they goofed.
DeleteI'm not sure that's all happening today. As you say, teachers are overburdened and under-appreciated and even vilified. My sister, a middle school home economics teacher, was threatened by a parent and also spat on.
You are right in thinking teaching to the big tests takes up entirely too much class time.
Thanks for writing. Carol