Ed wrote:
>The questions are:
>1.) Do you agree that "played" would be a subjunctive here?
>2.) Do you agree that "play" would be an error?
>3.) Do you think that second graders should be accountable for 
>subjunctives?
>4.) If your answer to (3.) is affirmative, how would you teach them?

and . . .
>It is crucial that at least some of that discussion be tied to what should 
>be done in the schools.  >students and parents find grammar to be a 
>mysterious set of impenetrable rules. They hate it. >Then we wonder why 
>they don't like to study grammar?

Ed - I agree with you conclusion that your two posts are imtimately 
connected.  I would have added a fifth question - namely, "If you answer to 
(3) is negative, wouldn't questions #1 and #2 be irrelevant?  My feeling is 
that a whole raft of students should be exempt from using the subjuntive - 
specifically, those who aren't ready for the subjuntion, including those 
high school students who are so deficient in reading and writing as to be 
incapable of dealing with the subjuntive.

Even though I teach at an alternative inner-city high school with a 100% 
African-American population, the problems my students encounter seem to be 
endemic of high schools all across the country regardless of the economic, 
racial, or behavioral characteristics of the students.  More specifically, a 
lot of students can't even handle basic grammatical constructions, let alone 
the subjuntive.

Therefore, my concern is to develop a pedogogical system, based on sound 
theory, but that can be used to bring my students - and thousands of others 
as well - up to speed in their reading and writing.  The method I've been 
using is a system of building sentences and paragraphs using constructions 
that the students are already familiar with as native speakers.

This seems to be working.  For example, my students are able to progress 
from the point of being totally unable to identify a sentence fragment to 
all being able to accomplish this task.  They are able to create complex 
sentences using practially all major constructions to communicate what I 
call the "8 parts of meaning" (the journalists' 
"who-what-why-where-when-how" formula).

They may not be able to conduct a successful hunt for a given part of 
speech, but they do learn how to create meaning using grammar.

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