I've been reading the postings for the past week about Grammar Certification.  I have to say that I agree with the fact that there is a need for this.  The point  is accountability for the skills that we have as teachers.  When we take college courses, literature is split up into American, British, World (or Western), Sahkespeare, Novel, Short Story, Young Adult, etc. The list could go on and on.  What classes did you take to prepare you to teach clauses, phrases, the  parts of speech, compound and complex sentences, punctuation, sentence structure, and usage?  The only upper level course I can recall in the two colleges I have attended is advanced grammar.  One course is required to cover years of learning and teaching on an array of subject matter. 

 

I teach at Sylvan Learning Center, and the academic writing  program is filled with high school students who cannot tell you where a comma goes in a compound sentence or how to make a verb agree with its subject.  In  fact, when asked to do this, I have heard many reply, "What is a subject?"  Why are these students not learning this in school?  I take into account the margin  of  students who have behavioral problems or  learning  disabilities, but I have also been told, "I've never  heard of that," or "I haven't had grammar since elementary school."  

 

This problem certainly needs to be remedied, and there needs to be accountability in place.

 

Stacy Bracher