Grammar Gremlins

To love writing as much as I do, I hate grammar. I relish the way words roll together and then stop abruptly with the right punctuation--when someone else has written it, and my job is only to enjoy. I've made it through most of my education by being a strong enough writer that learning the rules of grammar was never a necessity. Until I had to teach seventh grade.

So today I found myself reviewing for the CRCT and making up metaphors about paper and glue being like a compound sentence. I try to plan carefully for grammar lessons, making certain that I brush up on any possible questions a topic could lead to, just in case a question is asked by one of those "smartie" students that knows all the answers I don't. I know the look on my face betrays my teacherly intellect when one of those questions appears from nowhere, and I've resigned myself to saying I don't know, but I'll look it up. That answer never bothered me as a high school teacher studying Russian history in conjunction with Animal Farm, but somehow in relation to seventh grade curriculum, I find myself feeling like the kid in the back with the booger on his nose. Dumb, but just smart enough to know that everyone saw me, and yea, I look like an idiot . And it's always bothered me how much time we spend on grammar that seems unrelated to life skills. Yea, they have to be able to write, got it. But how many times has someone walked up to you on the street and asked you for a predicate nominative?

So, I'll slide from my soapbox and admit that my frustration comes from my lack of knowledge. See first step on the road to recovery. But as an English teacher, grammar is one of those things I SHOULD know, and I don't know it as well as I would like. Choices: take my own advice to my kids and learn it, or get over it. I'll decide after dessert.