crops

In David Mulroy's The War Against Grammar, Chapter Two, the claim is made that, "Questioning the value of basic grammar is like asking whether farmers should know the names of their crops and animals." The same as it is ludicrous to wonder why it is necessary for a farmer to be familiar with the plants and animals that are their livelihood it is nonsensical for any individual that wants to be successful in reading and writing to ask why they should master the statutes of basic grammar. The same as a farmer is not going to automatically know all of the in-and-outs of farming, it is not expected that one should know all of the rules of grammar instantly. One must learn from mistakes and practice in order to reach perfection.

Moreover, there are some basics that a farmer must be aware of before they can run a farm. There is a good chance that there will be minor slip-ups along the way, but the basics of what cows should eat and how much water tomatoes need should be known for the most part. Similarly, the basics of grammar: verbs, nouns, subject, etc. should be laid down as the groundwork for writing and reading in order to have a lush intellectual garden.

greek salad

In David Mulroy's second chapter, "The first Liberal Art," he goes all the way back to the influence of the Greeks and Romans on the English language. While the Greeks acquired the idea of the alphabet from the Phoenicians, it was the first of it's kind and allowed people to express complex ideas and stories as they had never been able to before. While prose is the more widely used form of communication today, the roots of writing can be found in poetry, as the first things to be written were the songs that were sung.

The likes of Homer and others employed and spread the use of the alphabet. The Romans were fast to emulate the Greeks alphabet, which played a major role in making their way up in the world. The Hellenistic period was one of expansion of the Greek and Roman literature. The Greek Plato came up with seven areas of study that all his students had to learn before tackling philosophy. Of course, the Romans were quick to follow with the institution of the same areas into their curriculum, deaming them "the liberal arts." Plato's Socrates stated that all peole had a priori of knowledge which enabled them to know the rules of their language. While it is true that knowledge of grammar comes from experience, it is still learned rather than just known. The liberal arts worked to instill the foundations of thought and problem solving due to the notion that knowledge must be learned, rather than that it is already known.

The mandates of the English language were layed down in greater detail by Dionysius and added to later by Donatus and Priscian. The books of the latter two became the basis of the study of the liberal arts. While grammar was not one of the most important of the seven subjects taught, it was still held in high regard since none of the ideas of the others would be possible to communicate without knowledge of this area.

SWEet

To teach SWE or to not teach SWE, that is the question. This is one of the reasons that I chose to not be an English education major. In the end, I have a feeling that whether or not I, or any other teacher, thinks it should be taught won't matter. What will matter will be whatever happens to be on the tests, and that is what teachers will preach to their students in order to keep their jobs.

Aside from what some might call a cynical, but what I like to think of as truthful, view of the world; if there were a utopia, there are certain things that I would prefer. While I have a great disdain for SWE when it comes to knowing all of the terms and diagramming sentences, I do feel that it has helped me a great deal to be able to communicate in this manner. I'm not sure that it is absolutely necessary to know the ins- and-outs of grammar in order to efficiently speak and write in SWE. However, when it comes to learning a second language, I think that it does help a great deal.

I have heard many people say that they learned more about grammar while learning a foreign language than they did in their English classes, and I can say that I had a similar experience. I was taught the fundamental operations of the English language by way of speaking and writing, as opposed to learning the backbone of the language before putting it to use. This is necessary when learning a language from scratch, but when it comes to an individual's first language, these rules are engrained into the individual's mind. The problem arises when these rules are not those of SWE.

I have friends that communicate more efficiently in English as their second language than those that have been speaking it their entire lives. It could be argued that it is easier to teach someone SWE as a second language than to re-teach someone that speaks incorrect English. Schools have ESL in order to aid children in learning English, however, there is no aid for children that have been brought up in an ungrammatical atmosphere.

In order to combat both of these setbacks, why not let the children help each other in learning SWE? In areas that have had dramatic growth in Spanish speakers, some schools have instituted programs that have children learning in Spanish for half of the day and English for the other half. This approach would cultivate a better understanding in both areas, since the children would be forced to learn the rules for one language in order to catch onto the other language. In addition, children would progress at a faster rate and not have to be singled out from the rest of their class to go to a special class.

In the end, all of the children come out with a second language and a better understanding of SWE. This is not a fool-proof method. There are many children that might fall through the cracks or teachers that are not able to teach the grammatical aspects due to thier own deficency in this area while they were in school. However, if such programs were instituted at an early age and touched on throughout the years, the children would not have to worry about it later on when it is more difficult for them to learn this new information when they have grown accustomed to speaking and writing in a certain way.