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One of my most intelligent students, a senior in my AP Literature and Composition class, caught me off guard today with this statement that I overheard in passing:
"I hope that by the time I die I have a complete understanding of proper English."
Grammar is a tricky thing. On one hand, as an English teacher, I feel obligated to help my students work through major grammatical and mechanical mistakes. Primarily, though, I address grammar in my classroom when the presence of grammatical errors is impeding comprehensibility.
On the other hand, grammar has and continues to be used as means of establishing power roles. It divides us socially, economically and culturally by excluding the portions of society that do not speak or write with the same grammar of the ruling class. (When I speak of grammar here, I mean mechanics and word usage)
So in a way, being an English teacher has landed me right in the middle of quite a moral dillema: Do I teach grammar more explicitly and help kids become part of that ruling class that will potentially repress them one day? Or do I focus on the more important aspects of writing, like audience awareness, logic and rhetorical appeals, to help my students become more persuasive and establish their own unique voices?
In practice, I'll admit that I do a little bit of both in the classroom — I am not about to sacrifice my students' potential on account of my own philosophical misgivings. But I do resent the extent to which we privilege so-called grammatical correctness in our society, because even the most introductory knowledge of linguistic theory and language history reveals that language is malleable and fleeting. You can never "fully understand proper English," because such a thing does not exist.
In essence, in aspiring to and upholding a "standard" grammar, we elevate something that doesn't deserve to be elevated. Grammatical rules are — for the most part — arbitrary. Grammar does not deserve respect or adoration. It is built for us to destroy, and it is built for us to manipulate as we see fit. If you are one of those people who cringes every time Oxford adds a new word to its dictionary (.pdf of recent additions), you need to open your eyes: words that you have undoubtedly infused into your own local dialect were, at one time or another, not words at all. Hell, William Shakespeare is said to have invented some 10,000 words, loads of which many of us use on a regular basis without thinking twice.
If you are one of those people who scoff at a misused comma or lament the web-ification of modern discourse, step back and reconsider what you are taking issue with (<--- Sentences that end with prepositions? Yikes!). Grammar is contextual and multimodal. There are grammars that are appropriate for almost every level of communication we participate in. From emails, to cover letters, to academic essays, to friendly conversations — it is clear that one grammar does not fit all.
So if you apsire to grammatical correctness, I ask you, what exactly are you aspiring to?
