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I am an English major at a four-year university in the United States. I am extremely nit-picky where mechanics, grammar, and spelling are concerned. First off, I find it very interesting that many of the folks who commented here criticizing the grammar of others did not bother to check their own. Some of the spelling found in this thread is atrocious.
I have several theories as to why grammar and spelling are perhaps not as important as they once were. For one, we have spell check now, and in my mind this makes people quite lazy. They think spell check will catch every little mistake they make, especially since Word now comes with grammar check too. But Word isn't perfect. It frequently makes error on verb confusion, usage, and will often miss homonyms. Thus we must be responsible for our own spelling and grammar errors.
Two, we use the Internet a lot, and the language we use on the Internet is not the same written language we would use to write a term paper. Truthfully, the language we use here on forums and in other forms of online communication is closer to spoken English and is rapidly becoming a vernacular of its own. Younger kids may not realize that using this written vernacular is unacceptable in other environments such as school and work.
Three, we fail to teach our children basic grammar concepts in American schools simply because teachers are too busy teaching to the test. Reading has a much higher priority in testing than writing, and with such acts as the No Child Left Behind Act in place, teachers must teach to the test or their schools face losing funding. While I will not disagree that reading and comprehension of written material is important, we must teach our children proper grammar constructions and concepts to further their comprehension. Without understanding of grammar, students cannot then go on to effective analysis of what they have read, and they certainly will not be able to synthesize from the material appropriately.
While I think it is important to have standards in education, I do not think we can truly evaluate students effectively through testing. If that is in fact the case, then teaching to the test is useless. We must take on a system of learning wherein building blocks are used, so that each concept introduced to students builds upon a previous concept. In teaching English, we must divide reading and writing so that children may learn to use both tools effectively, and learn to apply each tool to the other. We must include grammar constructions and concepts as part of the writing curriculum, as well as spelling. Too often we forget grammar in our rush to teach spelling, and we forget that it won't matter if they can spell correctly if they can't use the words to form a correct and complete sentence.
I am saddened to admit I see papers written by fellow students frequently that do not meet basic writing standards. On a rubric scale of 1-6, many papers in my 400-level English classes would rate about a 3 on mechanics alone. This is unacceptable; these are concepts to be learned before reaching university. I had a professor in a 400-level class who had to instruct our class on what comma splices were. That alone tells me we aren't doing enough to instruct our children in grammar and spelling.
Can you tell I am a future English teacher?
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If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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