Woe to them. A flush away from extinction.
Grammar is back. With any luck, letting students "do their own thing," whether or not they can read, spell or construct coherent sentences, will soon be just a bothersome memory.
And thank God for that.
I've had it up to here with trendy bureaucrats marching into my trailer and bemoaning the fact that I was teaching sentence structure to kids who didn't know how to write sentences. I've restrained myself from doing them physical harm as (with straight faces) they issued me dire warnings not to teach English grammar to kids who couldn't speak English.
Why won't I just sit them in groups and let them learn from their peers, who don't speak English either? Why won't I just teach ten minutes a period, dump the kids into "workshops," and let the magic happen? Why must I insist on having control of my classroom at all times? That's not cool, dude.
I'm hoping the new old wave will envelop New York City, but I don't know whether it will reach the ed-hippies in time. They're in till '09, and I don't think they read newspapers. I'm emboldened, however, by the revelatory news that the SATs are demanding real sentences from college-bound kids.
The ed-hippies love to let it all hang out, whatever it may be. But they fear standardized tests, and as long as they're afraid, maybe they'll keep their love beads and water pipes out of my business.
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