Jean Murphy wrote:
 
>> The tendency of linguistics away from
the concerns of the poet or the writer or the teacher of English is, I
think, impovershing to the disciplines.  I don't see how you can get
students to appreciate linguistics without starting them in some familiar
territory.  I do think that we haven't been very good about bridging the
gap.<<
 
 
While I agree that there is a gap, I must say I don't think that college students find traditional grammar at all "familiar territory."  I know from my own teaching that very few of them have any background in grammar at all from grade school or high school.
 
I also know, from doing a "structure" course for future high school English teachers, that they are in no better shape, linguistically speaking.  All their training has been in literature.  I find that it's best to assume "blank slates" when it comes to sentence structure.