Grammar Revealed

5 thoughts on “Grammar Revealed”

1. Sabrina Sebban-Janczak

   January 15, 2013 at 6:32 am

   One of my favorite poem by him EVER, and one I memorized while I was in school.
   Thank you for bringing it up ever so often!!!!

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2. Mark Knowles

   January 17, 2013 at 11:52 am

   Yes, and to have it connect with a discussion about pure grammar is truly bien dit et bien vu!
   Merci, Ben!

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3. Ben Slavic

   January 17, 2013 at 6:22 pm

   Thank you. Isn’t it weird how we have forgotten what grammar actually is – a beautiful spoken thing – properly spoken speech – that attains its greatest heights in the forms of poetry and song.

   We’ve bleached it out onto la page blanche, removed its music, made it flat, one-dimensional, its real form forgotten, where it languishes, like the great sea bird pinned onto the ship’s desk.

   The beautiful thing has become an ugly and unwelcome thing in kids’ minds in schools. Grammar. Ugh!

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4. Sabrina Sebban-Janczak

   January 17, 2013 at 10:07 pm

   I second Mark in saying that what you wrote about grammar Ben, is so beautiful and true. At the moment I m reading this book by Michel Volkovitch called ‘Verbier , Herbier verbal à l’usage des écrivants et des lisants”. And I just read this which is what you describe…..

   The quote below is in reference to Proust ‘s essay about Flaubert’s writing and style. The essay is called : “Sur le style de Flaubert” in which he says that Flaubert renewed people’s vision of things and Proust in his few pages proves that.

   It reads:
   “Si on m’avait fait lire ça au lycée! J’aurais aimé la grammaire, j’aurais plus vite compris que cet art d’accorder les mots entre eux , loin de se réduire à un ensemble de règles rigides, est un instrument souple et vivant; qu’il sert non seulement à ordonner la pensée, mais aussi à transmettre l’émotion. La grammaire considérée comme un des beaux-arts…….

   (If only someone had made me read this when I was in high school! I would have appreciated grammar, I would have understood faster that this art of putting words together according to a certain order, far from being a set of rigid rules, is a flexible and living tool; which is used not only to put thoughts in order, but also to transmit emotion. Grammar as one of the fine arts…..)

   Sorry if I m not the best translator but you get the idea.

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5. Ben Slavic

   January 17, 2013 at 10:22 pm

   Very cool. Thank you Sabrina! We are changing the definition of the word, aren’t we, in each class we teach. Now the kids get to hear properly spoken language, which is what grammar really is.

   You know, the instruction in the 20th century was just so boring. It gave rise to a whole national WL teaching corps who became teachers bc they were four percenters, the only ones who could get the flat kind of grammar.

   That hold that they have, all those grammar teachers who pulled the bird out of the air and flattened it on the boat’s deck, under their boots, on paper, are now going to start retiring and disappearing.

   New teachers will come along who are younger and who won’t buy into the one dimensional grammar lie, and things will thus change. I am happy to be a part of this change. I firmly believe that all this conflict is just the dust flying around the room as it gets cleaned.

   I have such great hope, and most if it lies with the younger teachers, like those in DPS, who are just kicking it every day. That energy can’t be stopped. It’s going to be a great new day, and it’s not so very far away, in my opinion. I can feel it in my heart.

   Related: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18EAqHx2lMk

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