The Importance of Grammar

I am here today to tell you all about the importance of grammar - however, as great as I am within the English language, I am afraid that I cannot tell you about the importance of grammar, because I do not know the necessary complexities of it.

Had I been taught from primary school all the way up to secondary school why I structure sentences the way I do and had there been labels put to these structuring of sentences, then by now I would have been an expert of the English language. My expertise would have been vast, and I would have been teaching at levels currently unknown, professional levels which would exceed my expectations and the expectations of others. 

But I do not know about grammar in the way that I would have loved to. Yes, I know how to correctly structure sentences, paragraphs, essays, articles and so on, and yes I know how to spell rather well without being too heavily reliant on new technologies like auto-correct, and yes I do know some grammatical devices, per se, such as metaphors and similes, however I cannot actually bring myself to explain to both another or myself the reasons as to why sentences are structured the way that they are. To my understanding, I know that the way I write is so because of rote learning. I have been brought up with dictation, with punctuation practice and because I read a lot, I know the structure of things but I cannot put labels to them.

These labels are crucial, because they are the solid base to which reasoning stands. But why? Why do I need to put that there? What's the difference with this and that? I don't get it! Neither do I, yet. I will teach myself what my English teachers failed to teach me. In fact, I promise myself from this moment on that I will not become a hired English teacher until I master the art of grammar. The education system here in Australia does not see fit the need to study grammar, because from what I am interpreting and witnessing, they just feel the need to follow the fast-paced curriculum to teach students what is necessary to passing essay writing and novel analyses, but not why. 

In my experience, students need reasons, valid reasons as to why they learn the things they learn. How then, can an English teacher offer reasons for sentence structure when they themselves are not aware of them? And across the cohort of English teachers in training with me, I can assure you that I definitely am not the only one with this experience. It is shocking, but most English teachers do not know the fundamentals of grammar. How then can we explain to students why things are the way that they are? Doctors have their terminology, nurses, tradespeople, mathematicians and scientists, yet the terminology for English has been abandoned. Ask any student, and they will be able to give you an example of a metaphor or a simile. Ask them to define a subjunctive mood, and you will lose them faster than a mother of eight would lose her children at a rock concert.

As a self-proclaimed geek, as an English enthusiast and as a lover of literacy and literature, I will acquaint myself with the one thing that most English teachers lack: a sense of grammar.