Grammar is correctly spoken language. We learn it by osmosis. There is no way we can learn it analytically, anymore than a yoga student can learn yoga by reading a book about a particular asana and then suddenly be expected to move into it without some kind of neurological pathway development in the body first. […]
Let’s admit that the influence of the people in our buildings who feel that grammar really needs to be taught to the kids in the first year is strong in our classrooms. Kids hear that the next year is all grammar and they get a look in their eyes like, “Are you preparing me for
Michele sent this from The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, pp 156-160: A thirteen-year-old girl is relating her day in French class. “What’s the point of grammar?” asked Achille . . . “You ought to know by know,” replied Madame Never-mind-that-I-am-paid-to-teach-you. .. ”The point is to make us speak and write well.” I
