Grammar-grind returns to U.S. schools
United Press International
October 23, 2006

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Renewed U.S. student interest in studying grammar has caused throngs of young teachers to return to class to learn it themselves, The Washington Post reports.

Changes to the SAT college entrance exam in 2005 to include a writing section has renewed students' desire to gain an upper hand with proper grammar, which pleases hard-line grammarian Mike Greiner, who teaches Advanced Placement students at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va.

"Other teachers in this county say, 'Fix the writing, and the grammar will come along.' Not me," Greiner told the Post.

However, many high school teachers are unprepared themselves, having gone through classes in the grammarless 1970's, the newspaper said.

Amy Benjamin, who presides over the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar, told the Post it's time to close the linguistic gap.

"We have armies of teachers, elementary teachers and English teachers, who don't have the language to talk about language," Benjamin said. "It's kind of their dirty little secret."