While some people would argue teaching Grammar in public schools is a
waste of precious classroom time and a waste of government funding, I
hold the belief that grammar is an important part of education and
should remain as regular class work in American classrooms. Grammar
is an important part of who we are as a people. If education is the
great equalizer, language is the great unifier. In order for America
to be unified through our language, we need a standard for good
grammar, attainable only through educational standards. Also
important to consider in an evaluation of grammar’s value is
how we use it to judge our surroundings. Far beyond the structure,
syntax, and meaning of our language is how we perceive other’s
usage. First impressions are many times formed based on someone’s
grammar. By educating our students in correct usage we not only
enable students to communicate themselves clearly, but also to
present themselves as intelligent, capable men and women when they
enter the workforce. Lastly, although I wholeheartedly agree grammar
should be taught in schools, I am able to suggest modifications to
current grammar education which might help grammar be more helpful
and more effective for students.
In recent years since scholars have debunked the idea of
chronological inferiority (Veit 285) we have come to recognize that a
universal language should not be a dead language. Slowly, English has
begun to assume this position of a universal language; to be an
international businessman or scientist, a person has a significant
handicap if they do not speak English. It is important that grammar
education remain in public schools so that our students will be
adequately prepared to represent themselves in this international
community of English speakers.
My second point, closely correlated with the previous paragraph, is
that people who speak correctly are shown favoritism in any developed
country. Although students may not learn actual speaking skills in
the classroom, (Veit 287) they might certainly be thankful for
learning prescriptive grammar if they found themselves interviewing
for a job such as apolitical speech writer. In America we believe in
allowing for equal opportunities among all people, but even we show
favoritism. To butcher the words of Orson Wells: “[even in
America] some [people] are just more equal than others.” I hold
a strong conviction that people capable of communicating well have an
advantage in the job market. At many jobs, a large percent of the
workload is in generating reports. Naturally the employee who
prepares concise, well written reports would be much more likely to
be promoted than the employee who’s reports are interminable
and difficult to understand. Even within the fields of math and
science, regardless of how brilliant a researcher is, if her journal
articles don’t make sense and her grant applications are poorly
worded, she doesn’t stand much of a chance of making the impact
her research could if she was able to communicate herself. Through
these examples we can see that in order for education to retain it’s
title of “the great equalizer,” we must prepare our
students to communicate and express themselves properly in a very
competitive world.
Preparing students for this type of world might be more difficult
than it seems. The typical American middle-class child enters first
grade with 1000-1700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading whereas
a child from a low-income family averages just 25 hours. (Adams) This
statistic is offered just to give us an idea of the problem teachers
are faced with. How can we expect a teacher to teach language skills
to these children who did not encounter language early one since by
the time these students reach the public school system their language
skills are already formed? (Veit 288) Given the current method of
education’s inability to reach these students before they fall
behind their peers, I believe that more education programs like Head
Start should be extended to low-income families to help equalize the
education of children early on. By allowing children to develop
normal linguistic skills, when they do enter school they will be
ready to work on their writing skills. Since direct grammar education
has been shown largely ineffective (Veit 289) we can indirectly
educate students about proper grammar through writing assignments, a
sure way to allow them to learn grammar through an effective, hands
on approach.
Grammar is a valuable tool for every English speaker and to abandon
it completely would be to abandon our hopes of being recognized as a
respectable, academic nation. I believe that the system of teaching
grammar should be revised but retained within elementary and
secondary schools to allow students equal opportunity and equal
representation.
Works Cited
Adams,
M.J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and
learning about print.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Veit, Richard. Discovering English Grammar.
Allyn & Bacon.
