At 03:46 PM 12/12/2008, richard betting wrote: . . .
>I would bet that the majority of middle school/high school English
>teachers would not be able to define and explain the terms that have
>been discussed, to say nothing of doing so from the perspective of
>more than one grammatical approach. That is not to criticize the
>teachers themselves so much as to ask about the educational process
>shat enabled them to get where they are without an adequate knowledge
>of the English language that they spend so much time teaching. In
>order to have an ADEQUATE (minimal) background in English, what
>courses should/must all language arts teachers have? Could we agree on
>the required courses? Do current textbooks (for teachers) meet the
>content requirement we might create? Is anyone still working on scope
>and sequence? . . .

DD: Very salient questions and comment. I teach Latin. [ Don't get 
caught in the Latin lists' cross fire on Grammar, Translating, 
Understanding, reading in Latin, Speaking, language learning in 
general, or whatever*.]  I suspect that the pre college level English 
teachers are not teaching or talking much about grammar. The students 
I get learn the parts of speech (et al.) from me, using Dr. John 
Traupman's, "Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency," mostly. What 
they do in English class, I wot not. Well, it appears to have naught 
to do with formal definitions or rules of grammar. Being a Nosey 
Parker, I have very discretely probed.  "Parse" is an unknown 
word.  I sort of gather from comments on this list that there are 
still some English Grammarian troglodytes that care. Consensus on 
texts we probably could have. Would they have a ghost of a chance of 
being adopted for teacher certification courses? That I misdoubt. 
Onward comrades, it is a glorious battle we wage. "Thump! Thump! 
Thump!" Do I hear the classic cue to the audience of impending doom?
*Well the ones on Graffitti are fun.

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