Peter Adams raised an interesting issue with: "In fact, I am wondering why the role of English teachers seems to always be to slow down this process and defend the traditional conventions." Is this really the role of English teachers? What do others think about this?

Personally, I don't see myself as a defender of traditional conventions at all. I suspect that many of my colleagues in the high school English classroom feel the same as I do. I rather see the English teacher in me as a promoter/fascilitator of deep thinking (and critical and creative thinking) through the disciplines of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Grammar instruction is one item in the toolbox, albeit an important one (and a too often neglected one at that). However, it's not for me so much as a teaching of convention as it is a teaching of the way language works -- as a means towards better/deeper thinking in these four disciplines.

I'd add that as a drama teacher, grammar is important in a similar way. When I ask my acting students to point up the nouns or "play to (or 'with' or 'on')" the verbs, I need first to make sure they know what these words are. My goal for them, however, is not grammatical, but theatrical -- I want them to make the language meaningful and rich, and to bring the text across clearly to the audience.

Paul D.