Grammar School
The president of my school forwarded this N.Y. Times article to the campus: Informal Style of Electronic Messages Is Showing Up in Schoolwork, Study Finds
I don’t know much about the National Writing Project, but it is worrisome to me that the head of the organization cannot explain the function of capitalization and periods. TheFreeDictionary’s definition of “sentence” is, “a grammatical unit that is syntactically independent and has a subject that is expressed or, as in imperative sentences, understood and a predicate that contains at least one finite verb.” In other words, a sentence is a single, coherent statement that includes a subject, object, and action or description. Sentences are basic logical elements. The capital letter at the start of a sentence marks the initiation of the statement and the period denotes its closing. Without these (and other) grammatical elements, the articulation thought becomes ill-defined.
Grammar is our first exposure to symbolic logic and is the cognitive foundation upon which causality and critical thinking are built. Without these tools history can seem nothing but a random string of events, algebra and the physical sciences are completely unobtainable, and the individual’s participation in democratic government is reduced to his or her voting candidates “on or off the island.” Further, computers and other technological tools become magical devices or even minor deities whose behaviors seem capricious–ultimately unknowable and unchangeable other than by following arcane rituals or consulting a shaman or priest. Economic principles such as compounding interest (in regard to both personal debt and long-term savings) become meaningless and are ignored for instant gratification. Concepts such as predestination, manifest destiny, “droite du seigneure” and Lamarckian genetics all become plausible again.
In short, and imnsho, a culture that discards the early teaching of grammar, or abandons it all together, is a good basis for a dystopian science fiction story. Of course, it could also be a possible explanation of Rome after Marcus Aurelius. Did Commodus institute an equivalent to “No Child Left Behind?” ;^)