Originally Posted by
gbrekken
Perhaps teachers are not taught grammar for any number of reasons. Mastering it out of personal motivation is by far the most meaningful of available processes. Translate that to any classroom. You can't force/enforce, or even legislate/prohibit desire. There's an old saying about not being able to force a horse to drink even after leading it to the water hole, but did you ever think of salting their oats? Force feeding filet mignon to a nursing child is not appropriate, neither is expecting all students to be at the same level of readiness and cramming "proper" structures down their throats ala McChokimchild and Gradgrind. Generally speaking, understanding of grammar (be it traditional, prescriptive, transformational, descriptive, tagmemic, or any other), can be a contributing factor both in the formulation of understanding and in the accuracy and understandability of both written and oral communication. Some aphoristic descriptions of the appropriateness of teaching grammar: let their hunger be your guide; when the student is ready, the teacher appears (be ready at least).
We (defenders of the ancient faith?) may not stop people from "aksing" their mother but we may slow the decay of any supposed standards that determine non-standard usage (includes figures of speech). You may take lack of comma as a small error or as my intentional attempt to hurry you on to what I consider the more important part of the two equal grammatical parts. I'll take Dickens, etc. over Snoop Dogg, Larry the Cable Guy etc. anyday. I hope that others in the future will be able to honestly say the same thing someday. Enjoy!
I speak of Tom, and Jerry.