Communication for Information and Systems

Communication for Information and Systems Technology

Analysis of Article by Christopher Bantick

It has become all too commonplace for educators and academics to decry the quality of contemporary education. The loss of respect for standards and quality in favor of a more relativist and "progressive" approach is often cited as evidence of cultural decline. The article by Christopher Bantick, "Poor Show in Classrooms When Grammar's Tossed Out the Door," stands as an example this sort of cultural jeremiad.

In a general sense Bantick seeks to criticize the de-emphasizing of grammar studies as signaling an abandonment of scholastic rigor in favor of an more reticent and lackadaisical approach to the education of, in his case, Australian youths. As a sign of the horrific state of grammar in Australia, Bantick mentions the case of the English Teachers Association of Queensland failing to fix some 65 errors in one of its own manuals. He says that since the teaching of grammar was abandoned in the 1960's, "…two generations of teachers…do not understand grammar because they were not taught it. This should be a concern to all parents, employers, and educators" (Bantick 2010). Thus the deficit of understanding of grammar on the part of many Australians is as much the consequence of not teaching it as it is the result of most teachers not even knowing it. He balks at the claim, often made today in the age of communications technology, that computers (specifically spelling and grammar checkers) have "done away with the need for learning grammar." Computers, according to Bantick, are at best a poor substitute for the proper study of grammar.

He then offers what amounts to a criticism of the postmodern assertion that communication is a matter of utility and therefore not something to be bothered by the rules of grammar. He refers to as "utter nonsense" the ideas put forth by some modern scholars who claim that grammar is but a power-grabbing tool "to establish linguistic hierarchy" (Bantick 2010). According to Bantick, grammar provides an objective material for study. By denying children grammar, the school system is effectively robbing them of "their own language" and giving them nothing more than a relativistic and ephemeral means to write, speak, and communicate. "Grammar has a sense of order. This is different from essays, which can frequently be subjectively assessed…whereas grammar deals in objectivity, exactitude and rules" (Bantick 2010). Bantick's sympathies are by now quite obvious.