So far as I know, there is a language committee within NCTE. I can't
find evidence of it on their website, but I'm sure I have attended
meetings of it at NCTE conferences. Can anyone confirm?

The project that produced "Grammar Alive!" was originally called the
Scope, Sequence, and Standards Committee. We had an extremely ambitious
agenda, and the group did produce a nice volume. But its original intent
-- to do exactly what Craig calls for, formulating a sound K-12 grammar
curriculum, is still to be realized. It is a huge project. I don't think
there is a lack of will or interest; I think the main problem is a lack
of resources which would free busy teachers and professors to devote
great amounts of time to researching, consulting with each other, and
writing up some documents. Since we are spread across the nation, we
also need support to travel and meet. Few ATEG listers are at R-1
universities (that is, the kind which pay their professors primarily for
research and writing, not teaching, and also have relatively generous
resources for supporting travel). K-12 teachers have laughably little
support for such projects in most school systems. Several ATEG members,
like Brock Haussamen and Rebecca Wheeler, have committed huge amounts of
time and energy to ATEG-related projects. I think they have managed this
mostly through their own sacrifice of time, doing it as much as possible
within their job assignments, but also going above and beyond on their
own time.

It is also difficult to get external funding for projects about
improving grammar teaching. I've had a NEH grant turned down, and the
LSA group is now re-writing NSF and NEH grant proposals. I have often
wanted to explore other sources of grant funding, but again, this takes
time.

***************************************************
Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. 805-756-2184 ~ Dept. phone 805-756-2596
Dept. fax: 805-756-6374 ~  E-mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
***************************************************

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