Why is Grammar a High School Afterthought?

Michael McLaughlin

I am typically a good speller and punctuation comes pretty naturally. In terms of grammar, it’s a completely different story. Most of my AP classes focused on improving the style and smoothness of our writing; few focused on actual grammar. The “whom, who debate” was long forgotten. Normative case? Objective case? Never heard of them. Knowing the amount of preparation that I am lacking is a little startling at first. And to be completely honest, it’s sad.

The big question for me is why have our schools abandoned grammar? More curiously, why are “advanced placement” classes allowing grammar errors to become commonplace? Perhaps, it is only my experience. Any thoughts?

Past Grammatical Experiences

In my past experiences, I have not had much trouble with the functions of writing. My main issue has been with commas. I tend to use many more than are actually needed. I tend to use commas like alcoholics drink. They are convenient and usually get the job done. Unless, of course, I end up with a run on sentence that rambles on about 50 different subjects, which used to be a serious problem for me. Otherwise, spelling and grammar was never much of an issue. However, other than a gigantic words, I have few issues with the rest of the structures of writing.