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Subject:RE: what to look for in a Tech Editor From:"Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 6 May 2003 13:07:23 -0400
"Rock, Megan" <Megan -dot- Rock -at- fanucrobotics -dot- com> wrote:
>To those of you out there with school-age children, are your kids learning this kind of grammar in public school? What about private/parochial/charter schools?
>
Megan,
I believe the answer is going to vary from state to state, but the general trend, as I understand it is this (lifted from an off-list response I wrote earlier today to someone who had gotten the fundamentals in parochial and private schools):
There has been a huge shift in the way English teachers understand the concept of teaching grammar to children (the Whole Language movement is probably the best known version of the new paradigm).
As a result, it is now considered hopelessly regressive to expose kids to the concepts you and I are talking about. Somehow telling kids there are _rules_ is supposed to stunt their growth and turn them into sociopaths or something.
This story is woven from the finest of threads, which only the virtuous among us can see. And English teachers, who like to think of themselves as virtuous, apparently believe they can see it.
In any case, this fad has completely won over most state education departments, who set the mandatory curricula for public school teachers but who do not have much influence over parochial and private schools.
So the issue is not that public schools are underfunded (they are, of course) or that public schools do not attract talented teachers (they do, of course), but rather that private and parochial schools let teachers teach.
I hope someone eventually persuades the emperor that he has been swindled. Things are not looking good for the near term, though.
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