When I joined the faculty of the College of DuPage ten years ago, I was
charged with the responsibility of creating English language and
linguistics courses for the English dept.  I was then, and remain today,
the only faculty member with a degree in linguistics.  The curriculum
committee had no problem with History of English, Child Language
Development, or Linguistics.  Modern English Grammar was another matter.
 
Grammar?  As a college level course?  The committee was no less dismayed
than my colleagues in the English department.  As Prof. Rubba has
already mentioned, most faculty have an impression of grammar as
remedial/developmental.  The roots of the association of grammar with
developmental English go back to the tracking system of the high school
curriculum, where there reigns a belief that a student will be unable to
comprehend anything about literacy or education without first being
drilled into submission, boredom, or loathing by mind-numbingly
decontextualized, hence educationally vacuous, workbook and by-rote
grammatical instruction.  This practice, it seems to me, speaks to the
poverty of real, substantive understanding of the role of developmental
education in secondary or post-secondary education.
 
(If people like Prof. Rubba and me have any allies at all within our
institutions, those allies are often found within the developmental
English faculty, since that faculty too understands what it means to be
misunderstood and undervalued.  There have been enormous strides made in
developmental English education within the last few years; I am thinking
here especially of reading instruction and dyslexia.  However,
developmental education faculty often find that it is more difficult to
educate administration and boards of trustees than the students
themselves.  Grammarians find themselves in a similar dilemma.)
 
Fear is another issue.  Grammar courses, in my small experience, tend to
be quite successful.  There is no lack of linguistic insecurity among
quite able, bright, successful students (of all ages) who genuinely want
to know more to alleviate anxiety or to gain a sense of validation.
Some  students have a real hunger to know more about language and its
organization.  These facts disturb those of our colleagues who get
territorial tendencies.  Fear manifests itself too in that our
colleagues are called "English" professors but are trained in literature
or composition.  More than once I have had colleagues come into my
office, sheepishly, with a paper in hand and ask me to parse a sentence
or explain how to recognize passive voice.  (They've heard it's bad.)
Then they ask me not to mention our conversation to anyone, feeling
genuine shame.
 
The problem that Profs. Wilson-Orzechowski and Rubba describe as they
prepare to argue the grammarians case at their respective institutions
parallels the problem larger problem that ATEG faces as part of NCTE.
In all cases, there is much misunderstanding, leading to fear, loathing,
or both.
 
Having taken so much of your bandwidth and time by this point I wish I
had something really strong for Profs. Wilson-Orzechowski and Rubba to
use as they argue the case for language study at their institutions.
Alas, I have no silver bullet for you to put through the hearts of the
Committee Monster.  I do know that students will take to a course that
offers them a chance to learn about the structure of English.  I've seen
that happen at three institutions.  Had I the chance to do things over,
however, I probably would call the course "Syntax and Structure of
Modern  English" or some variation thereof, simply because the title I
chose "Modern English Grammar" has what Prof. Kolln calls that nasty
"g-word" with its negative associations.
 
For the bigger issues, I can only hope that ATEG continues to meet
regularly at NCTE and CCCC, that members of ATEG propose panels for NCTE
and CCCC, and that ATEG promotes the cause of grammar instruction to
boards of trustees and even our state legislatures.  (Often lay people
have a [blind] faith in, and respect for, grammar that our other
colleagues don't share.)
 
Yours,
 
Dan
--
Daniel Kies
Department of English
College of DuPage
425 22nd Street
Glen Ellyn, IL  60137-6599  USA
 
E-mail:  [log in to unmask]
  OR     [log in to unmask]