Grammar makes a comeback...

...will spelling be far behind? According to a story in the Washington Post, one side effect of the addition of the writing portion to the SAT, is a return to teaching sentence diagramming and grammar in high school. One thing I did not know about the writing section, is that there is actually a short multiple choice section on grammar. It is to be sure, that the number of college-entry students taking remedial math and writing courses is a large number at 4 year institutions, and the majority at junior colleges for students wishing to transfer. Could it be, that adding the writing section would force teachers to admit that the holistic language arts program started in the 1980's is actually a failure in teaching writing? A standardized test seems to point that out. Hmm, no wonder teachers unions and administrators hate standardized tests, especially the ones tied to funding. The SAT exposing a student's shortcomings in his education could also explain why more students have begun taking the ACT, in order to avoid the writing and grammar section.

There are a couple of issues brought up by the new trend of teaching old grammar. First, the teachers weren't kidding that they would be influenced into "teaching to the test" when learning performance would be tied to federal funding. This is the lazy way of designing a curriculum: it helps the school, but doesn't help the student. Perhaps the performance tests should now include a writing and grammar section? I can just imagine the gnashing of teeth and the demonstrations from the teachers' unions that would incur. The second issue is the adoption of education theory in the 1980's which took a non-hierarchical view of child development and applied this view to all methods of instruction. Child development, especially cognitive development, happens in stages, and curricula used to incorporate that view. But the "holistic" approach gathered adherents, because it stressed discovery, individuality, and self-directed learning. All these are great things for adults, but not for children. The application of self-directed learning methods had to include self-esteem fostering, because, if the child did not feel successful in its self-directed learning, the child would withdraw, and the fostering of discovery would end. We now see the effects of grade-inflation, non-grading, whole language, and whole math approaches in a generation of young adults that can't write, can't add or subtract, and can't think logically.

I worry because this generation will soon be old enough to take over the policy direction duties of our governments. Making emotional judgments with specious logic is good enough to satisfy your college professors when you agree with their views, but the real world has real consequences. Being able to apply the lessons from grammar, that there is a correct way to express an idea, may influence a future generation, that there is a right and a wrong way to think.