Grammar and usage skills scarce in high school English classes

Amer. School Board Journal ^ | ASBJ

[hsmomx3]

When students enter college, their English instructors want them to have a good grasp of grammar and usage skills. Unfortunately, high school English teachers don't consider those skills important, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

A national curriculum survey by ACT, the company that creates the widely-used college admissions test, found that grammar and usage were the least likely to be taught at the 700 high schools surveyed.

Among the high school teachers surveyed, 90 percent said they taught sentence structure, writing strategy, organization, and style, and 83 percent taught punctuation. Only 69 percent said they taught grammar and usage. College teachers surveyed said that grammar and usage were the most important skills for their classes.

(Digested from the Chicago Sun-Times, April 9, 2003)

[Richard Roma]

thats cuz they aint important

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[LiteKeeper]

education bump

[Luna]

Grammar? Isn't that the nice old lady relative who gives you hugs and pinches your cheek every Christmas?

[PeterPrinciple]

We used to have an older gentleman (85) that could still diagram sentences at that age.......I think he had a much better quality education than I had.

[Hodar]

Yes, but ebonics scores are at an all time high.

- or -

Yo buss dis. yeah, but ebonics scores be at an all time high. Sheeit!

[Gefreiter]

I once was a TA for an intro history class at a big public university. Students were required to submit weekly essays on that week's readings.

One wrote so poorly I assumed he was a poorly-trained ESL (English as a second language) student, and was shocked to learn that he was a native English speaker, from NYC somewhere. He simply had never really been taught to write effectively.

So we had to teach basic writing as well as the relevant history, which was a shame and should not have been necessary. This article does not surprise me in the least.

[k2blader]

Incorrect usage of there/their/they're and your/you're is one of my pet peeves.

Inexcusable in anyone over the age of 17.

[renosathug]

Your correct. Their is no reason for it.

[LibertarianLiz]

Just a little Mom pride: My eldest daughter got a perfect score on her ACT in the grammar section. She is the product of a Catholic elementary and high school.

[Rocko]

Your a looser! ;')

[twigs]

This is not surprising at all. Last year I took a course on teaching English, required to get my certification to teach. Our textbook absolutely excoriated any idea of teaching grammar or giving exercises "out of context" that might teach them. I was surprised by the vehemence of the anger. My teacher supplemented the text with addition articles. Fortunately, our curriculum requires taking grammar to get certified (not all do). I'm a big believer in teaching grammar and writing from grade school on up.

[Rocko]

And it's; its.

It's a fact.

[hsmomx3]

Inexcusable for my elementary age kids as well beginning at about the 3rd grade level.

[aruanan]

Grammar and usage skills scarce in high school English classes

And not just among high school students. Hey, man, grammar is just a way for the elite to oppress the masses! Incidentally, or perhaps not, English teachers are some of the most strident Marxists around.

[twigs]

Congratulations! Religious schools do the best job of teaching grammar because they believe in it. Even so, this stuff can be very difficult. Your daughter deserves the heartiest praise!

[HIDEK6]

20 years ago I got a promotion that required that I leave the sales territory I had developed. My boss hired an ex-teacher to take my old job. I had to train him.

After we got back from our first trip, I told him to write the call report.

Not only could this guy not write a complete sentence, his report was literally full of misspellings.

This was 20 years ago. Teachers have gotten worse since then.

The most illiterate people I know are teachers.

[verity]

Future human shields.

[Textide]

I agree with you. Will also add it's/its, here/hear, looser/loser, etc.

The apostrophe is to be respected!