This has been one of those insidious viruses that makes you feel nasty, gives you hot and cold flashes (yes, even the men), makes the children throw up periodically, and leaves you tired all the time with either a sore throat or a sinus headache. I'm wiped, but I can't seem to sleep.
I've also been whining about the intellectual level of the Bible Belt over on the MCT Yahoo group.
I was putting together some lesson plans for Grammar Town this morning when something terrible occurred to me.
What good is having knowledge if it's lost on 99.9 percent of the American public? I mean, outside of Oxford, does anyone in popular culture (or American culture in particular) appreciate or use good grammar and vocabulary? What good is knowing the right word if no one around us understands us when we use it?
Oh sure, we language nerds can delight in the well-turned phrase and let poetry drip from our lips like honey, but when you're talking about life skills, the intricacies of good grammar fall somewhere between understanding hedge funds and the correct use of the acronym "WTF".
Homeschool starts Monday, and it's too late to move to a more urbane city. Please help...
I think this fit of literacy was prompted by the writers of BBC's Mystery series of Inspector Lewis (and the dishy Sergeant Hathaway) in the town and college of Oxford. Technically, Hathaway studied at Cambridge, but there's something intoxicating about watching a show where one of the characters recognizes that a phrase in a book was "nicked from Sophocles".
But now, it's back to teaching a child who whinnies in public and doesn't understand the past tense. I had someone in the grocery deli line try to convince me that someday I'd miss this time. I didn't have the heart to tell her that there was a good chance that "someday", The Girl may be just about the same as she is now. If that's not the most terrifying idea I've ever heard, I don't know what is.
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