Even Teaching Grammar Is Political

The piece that stood out the most to me this week was Jill Ewing Flynn’s “The Language of Power”. I have been thinking a lot about the implications of teaching grammar as if there is one proper way to write. These thoughts have stemmed from my upbringing and the information I’ve learned to get to where I am now.

Grammar had always been presented to me as an absolute. I remember briefly discussing dialects in a couple of classes, but they were always framed as being inferior to Standard English. Almost every piece of academic writing I’ve done has been corrected or commended because of my usage of Standard English. I had never been prompted to think about who had written the Standard English rules or why we were made to follow them.

I grew up believing there was a right and wrong way to write. This view came from the way teachers corrected us in class, my family corrected me at home, my role models talked poorly about people who didn’t speak using the same rules, and people in power used this same form of English. I was constantly drilled and expected to know how to speak in this way. Near the end of my k-12 schooling, I strongly believed there was one correct way to write.

Now, after learning more about the world, about writing, and about teaching, I’ve completely changed my mind. I now realize that the reason I believed there was a correct way to wright was because oppressive forces and people in power have spent years indoctrinating me to believe this. I’d been trained to believe that those who don’t speak like rich, white men will never be successful like they are. The worst part is that many schools, parents, and role models continue to teach this damaging narrative. It is so engrained into our minds – at least speaking for white folks – that most of us never even question it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve told people that I majored in English only to hear them say something like, “Oh, I guess I’ll have to watch my grammar!” They always say it as a joke, but the truth is that they probably worry that I’ll catch them speaking “incorrectly” and will judge them as inferior because of it.

As a teacher, I worry about further pushing on this harmful. I am happy I was able to read about Mr. Ramsey and how he taught “the language of power” alongside his students’ own dialects, being careful not to put Standard English on a pedestal (Flynn 27). I hope to do something similar in my own classroom. I want to give my students the tools to help them succeed in our oppressive society while simultaneously giving them space to write in their own dialects. I believe a key to teaching this is to be honest with my students and tell them that context and audience matter.

Source:

·      Flynn, Jill Ewing. The Language of Power: Beyond the Grammar Workbook. National Council of Teachers of English, 2011.

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