Tom, et al.
 
    I would like permission to print your post in Syntax,
together with some of the responses to it. (I'll need
your permissions, and, Johanna, I'll need another copy
of yours since I accidentally deleted it.)
 
    Personally, I agree with Bob, except that I probably
feel even more strongly than he does that teachers
should be able to demonstrate proficiency in identifying
such things as subjects, verbs, objects, clauses, etc.
in any piece of writing. As for Johanna's questioning of
the reason for that, my first impulse is to respond with
another question -- Johanna, do you teach writing, or
linguistics? As a writing instructor, I regularly discuss
sentence structure as it relates to meaning -- and to
ethos.
      I make the students learn to identify subordinate
clauses. We also discuss what subordinate clauses
do within a text. (Back into that MIMC thing.) Then I
have them analyze a passage of their own writing and
calculate the number of subordinate clauses per main
clause. The class average is usually one per main
clause. Some students have NONE. They see for
themselves that their writing is "different," and they
also see how they can change it to be more like that of
their classmates.
      From my perspective, it is totally irresponsible of
us NOT to teach not just teachers, but all students
how to identify subjects, verbs, clauses, participles,
noun absolutes, etc.