A few posts back, Max Morenberg wrote:

The young editor had done his homework and obviously wanted
to
produce a useful, thoughtful series of textbooks.  The editor's
enthusiasm
was catching.  But a week or two after he had first approached me at a
conference, he called and said that his plan had been scrapped by his
editorial board.  The grammar series, they admitted, wasn't very good.
But
it sold well.  And they weren't about to change the formula that made it
a
bestseller.

ATEGers work away at grammar education issues from a variety of angles.  I
think the  cycle between editors' publishing decisions and educators'
purchasing decisions is one we can't ignore, since, as Bill McCleary wrote
me recently, the curriculum won't change until the textbooks do.  On the one
hand, publishers have no incentive to change grammar material that is
familiar and selling well.  Cynically, according to some, their view is that
a textbook doesn't necessarily have to be good, it just has to be
unobjectionable.  On the other hand, teachers--or the education
administrators who make text decisions--purchase language arts books in
which, for many grades, grammar is only one thread of the assignments and
exercises.  We know that many classroom teachers want clearer grammar
material and more guidance about how to teach it but they may not know
enough about the available alternatives to ask for them.

ATEG should do its best to work both ends of this cycle.  We reach some
teachers on our own and others through our foothold in NCTE.  We should
encourage teachers to ask their administrators to ask publishers for better
grammar material.  If they will object, they might be heard.

In the other direction, one which we have not pursued, we should find ways
to contact editors and publishers, show them the responses we get from
teachers at our workshops, and convince them their bottom line might be
improved with even modest revisions in the accuracy, practicality, and
teachability of their grammar materials.  Connie and Max report that the
publishing juggernaut overwhelms or compromises the individual
writer/teacher/scholar.  But as a growing organization, ATEG has a
potentially larger voice.  Kathryn Rogers and other editors from Holt have
attended recent conferences. We should consider other editors and
publishers, individually and by groups, who we can involve in our work on a
regular basis.  If we keep our expectations realistic, we might make a dent.


Brock Haussamen
Raritan Valley Community College
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