AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2006 > July > 27
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Who was YOUR grammar teacher?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Most days I’m in no rush to check my snail-mail box. Leaden reports from education groups stunningly out of touch with school life. Invitations to fund-raising events. Church newsletters. (I used to be on the church beat. Really!)
But every once in a while, I get something thought-provoking. This time it came in a fancy envelope typically used to deliver a wedding invitation. No return address. Postmark: North Metro. Hmmmm…. Inside was a copy of a story I wrote on July 16. Some words toward the end of the story - “one” and “were” - were circled in black marker. Next to the story, the sender wrote: “Who was your grammar teacher?” The sender also wrote in the margin: “was not were.”
Busted! Or am I?
Here is the sentence: “Donna Scullin also sees no reason to transfer her sons out of Norcross High, even if one of the county’s less diverse and higher-performing schools were an option.”
Isn’t that the subjunctive tense? My senior English teacher Miss Bowes, a former nun who was known for her Vogue-worthy sense of style, taught me this, if memory serves. For example: If I were you.
A quick jog up to our library turned up a book called “Harbrace College Handbook,” and its authors seem to side with me. “Use the subjunctive to express wishes or a hypothetical, highly improbable or contrary-to-fact condition.” The example says… “Drive as if every other car on the road were out to get you.”
Dear sender, I am pleased that you found this matter worth the cost of a stamp. And I am thrilled that you read my story to the end and that you read the paper in its original format: the one involving ink and trees. Thank you for the food for thought, as it is never a waste of time for a journalist to ponder grammar. I’ve made many, many legitimate errors, which are sometimes pointed out in the form of a yellow postcard from a grammar society of some sort. But in this case, I’m thinking my public school education served me well.
I loved studying grammar in school. I loved diagramming sentences and strived to make them beautiful and perfect. I confess I don’t remember how to diagram the subjunctive tense. Anybody want to try?
Get Schooled readers, did you diagram sentences in your day? Do kids still do that? Is grammar instruction still alive? On life support?
Crossblogination: Over at the Snellville blog, folks are discussing trailer classrooms…
