Children respond to rules of grammar as they do other rules
Lynne Truss is not the only one passionate about grammatically correct sentences. (Education Post, August 28). It's a noble pursuit to improve the world's literacy standard and I am happy for her. I felt I had to respond in defence of teachers, though, when I read: 'The main thing I hope - and I am a bit sad it hasn't happened already - is that someone in education will say we ought to take a look at literacy and ought to make it a much higher priority.'
I am not familiar with the idea that grammar is boring. Perhaps Lynne should have visited more classrooms. Certainly the students in my classes have not thought so. A couple of months ago I reprimanded a seven-year-old for looking at his watch while I was reading to the class, and his response? 'But I was just looking to see what time we have grammar because I know that comes next!' I want parents to rest assured grammar and punctuation is as important as mathematics in your child's curriculum, and some teachers do teach it in a way that is meaningful.
As long as children know the purpose for learning grammar and are actively involved in the editing of sentences, learning comes almost naturally. It doesn't matter how technical the term for young children either, for when they see their sentences in front of them - and it is obvious that we need to rearrange the order of some of the words and perhaps add a few - children soon become aware that we need a 'language to talk about language' and this is when grammatical terminology is introduced.
One last thing. I hope so much Lynne Truss doesn't start that children's fiction book she was thinking about writing to teach children grammar. Children love a good story; they love to read a story or hear a story, like the rest of us. They can also distinguish between a good story written to entertain, and one that's written with a completely different purpose in mind. Now a children's story to teach grammar - that would be a boring read.
ELISABETH BROWN,