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]