The Teacher Ain't Always Right
Donna Garner, a long time English teacher in Texas public schools, ruins a reasonable appeal for better English language instruction in schools with a misguided understanding of how the English language is used. In a Dallas Blog column, she laments:
"Similar to what many of you probably do, I find myself frequently yelling at the TV set! I am so tired of hearing incorrect grammar used by TV commentators, Teachers of the Year, firemen, city council members, college professors, political figures, Congressional staffers, recent college graduates, and people-on-the-street. [...] 'He sung loud and clear...The interview was between him and I...She laid down for her nap just before the house became engulfed in flames...Sally snuck out to the playground...Jim dove into the swimming pool.' "Some of these usages have a long and honorable history. You can find them in the writings of the greatest writers of the English language, Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Wordsworth, Coleridge and others. Who is Donna Garner to say that these writers were wrong?
Much of this misguided effort stems from an attempt to shoehorn the English language into the grammar rules of Latin or to define rules to make English more logical. It's not that modern English has been corrupted from some earlier, more perfect age. In many cases, English speakers never followed the rules laid down by wishful pedants. Language is not mathematics. Language is the people's tool and it follows popular usage.
For example, "dove" has been gradually replacing "dived" for a hundred years. Sometimes English evolves by standardizing around, for example, "-ed" endings for past tense. But sometimes, the old Anglo-Saxon endings ("drove", "dove") hang in there or even stage a comeback.
Students need to learn that language is a living, evolving cultural organism as much as they need to learn the strict rules of today's New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. As Donna Garner's own ears tell her, plenty of people say "dove," not "dived." As Donna Garner admits, many of those same people have jobs as television commentators, Teachers of the Year, college professors, city council members, Congressional staffers, etc. These are the people who set the standards for language use. The style guide will eventually catch up to what these people say, no matter what long-time English teachers in public schools may have learned when they were in school. Donna Garner should quit yelling at the TV set and start appreciating how language is actually used. It doesn't always follow logical rules, but that doesn't make it any less "correct."
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