I am a grammar
buff, and proud to be one. I had no choice in the matter. Spelling and grammar
were areas where my parents were not lax. They wanted their kids to be
articulate. We all had our grammar corrected immediately upon using the wrong
word. They had a great deal of help from the Catholic nuns who educated us, who
were nothing if not rigorous in teaching us the King’s English. Every
grandchild, when visiting, got corrected as well. I thanked Mom and Dad many
times for the gift of that early correction. Sam has thanked me many times for
the same.
If a wine
snob is one who appreciates fine wine, I must be a grammar and spelling snob. I
like “buff “or “aficionado” better. My brain lights up when I see misspellings
and hear bad grammar! I want to rectify both! I have many friends who use poor
grammar and I always notice it. It is all over TV; even my favorite reality TV
host uses it. Sports analysts (and Sam would agree) and broadcasters are not
known for good grammar. The morning talk shows are sprinkled every day with
grammar missteps. Yes, I notice every one.
Mom and Dad
raised an S & G buff. I raised an S & G buff, and I have no doubt that
if Sam has kids someday, their speech will be readily corrected by their papa.
Because Sam had college journalism classes, he is even more knowledgeable about
high level grammar rules than I am.
I have been
able to use my particular area of passion in my job. My subbing in the schools
was a prime place to make a difference. I swear parents don’t correct poor
speech anymore. When a student asked or told me something like, “Can him and me
go to the library?” I would just calmly say every time, “Ask me again using
proper English.” It may have taken 3 or 4 tries, but they eventually got it
right. And then I told them how they could not make that mistake again. Of
course I was there only one day at a time, and without daily reinforcement, I’m
sure my efforts to teach a few grammar rules went by the wayside, but I put my
due diligence in anyway. I never let poor grammar slip.
In 20 years,
I’ve rarely heard a teacher correct grammar in a student. Many of our teachers
themselves have poor skills. THEY never learned well. One day a classroom
teacher said in a conversation with me, “Him and Gary played tennis with I and
Ann.”(names changed) I honestly cringed to my core. I went home and told my
husband that our schools are failing our kids through parents who don’t care
about speech and through many of our teachers. Not all of them. But definitely
some of them. How can they turn their students into well-spoken adults when
they themselves are not articulate?
My biggest
bug-a-boo is with pronoun use. Learning how and when to use nominative pronouns
and objective pronouns correctly should be taught from 2nd grade on.
If kids learn it early----and it’s so easy to learn---- they will know it
forever.
The second thing
that I hear way too much of is using an adjective where an adverb should be:
“He drove real careful.” (carefully, not careful) “He did good in that game.”
(well, not good).
Then there
is the “like” word that has permeated our culture, used multiple times in a
sentence before verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives. What a meaningless word.
Nothing sounds so “backwoods” to me as someone who cannot form a sentence
without using “like.” I just like hope it is like just a fad and that it like
eases its way out of our English vernacular like very soon.
Once I was
subbing and saw a notice I was to send home with kids for their parents to
sign. I read it and found 4 spelling and grammar errors in the notice. I left a
note for the teacher and did not send it out. Our college education classes
need to stress good grammar and spelling so that these young educators can pass
that on.
Okay, this
has become a lecture and I never intended it to be that. What I want to say is:
Parents and grandparents, if you notice poor grammar, correct it. Teach it to
your little ones. Pass on the gift of becoming articulate. If you don’t know
good grammar, there are hundreds of resources where you can learn it! Turn your
kid into a grammar and spelling buff!
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