Degeneration Watch
30th August 2011
Rigorous training in the rules of grammar and linguistic nicety was the basis of all education for the literate elite in the ancient world, and until recently the same could be said of modern times as well. So thoroughly have the tables been turned against grammar in the United States that it has virtually disappeared from American primary schools. No less a body than the National Council of Teachers of English has adopted resolutions and issued reports arguing that the study of traditional school grammar does students a “gross disservice”; so it is only symptomatic of a wider cultural trend that recent American Presidents are known for their grammatical gaffes as the Roman emperors were for their meticulous correctness.’
Yaz, we be real ‘n’ shit, don’t need nonna them grammar bitches on da street, yo.
August 30th, 2011 at 11:52
I’m certain Chaucer voiced the same agonizing distress.
As much as I deplore and despise the current state of English–or non-state, rather–I am realist enough to know that “usage makes it so”.
I blame automation and the deluge of “texting”. But automation in all things is good, or so you say.