Gretchen Lee raised an interesting point. She has to deal with a complaint
from a Latin teacher in her school:

> I'm not sure what I should be teaching (see
> "Gretchen's Annual Lament"!), but I'm darn sure that my kids shouldn't be
> asked to do what they are being required to do in this class.  When they
> don't, the teacher sighs heavily and blames me!

This notion of "blaming" the English teacher for the failings in our
students' language skills seems to come up from time to time. I have heard
teachers in other disciplines complain vigorously about their students' weak
writing with some variation on this line: "What are you English teachers
teaching these kids. They can't write a sentence." Of course, I usually
commiserate with them about the state of learning in society at large, the
lack of regular reading practice (which I think is far more to the point
than blaming ME for the wholesale lack of skills that we're encountering),
and the lack of interest in school on the part of many students today.

I don't think that I'm passing the buck on this one. Often, however, the
conversation boils itself down to a low-blow comment such as: "But don't you
teach grammar to these kids?" I, of course, say that I do, but it's rather
late by the time I get the kids, that other English and elementary teachers
are discouraged from teaching grammar by the educational establishment, and
that most grammar instruction fails to achieve any meaningful goals. I
usually conclude that the kids will never write well if they don't write and
read regularly, anyway, so it's EVERY teacher's task to make them read and
write better.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? How have you dealt with them?

Curiously yours,

Paul E. Doniger

"I'm sure care's an enemy to life." -- Sir Toby Belch

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