Re: Diagramming sentences


ceceliaarmstrong@xxxxxxxxx wote:
Sara Lorimer wrote:
I didn't go to US grade schools, but I have never seen any evidence that
my American peers -- I'm 35 -- were taught how to diagram sentences.

Your American peers are at least a dozen years too young for
diagramming. I learned diagramming in the U.S. in the 1950s; did it
for years of English classes in grade school. But most of my American
contemporaries had no grammar lessons at all, just as they learned no
phonics or spelling. Ten years later, kids got the from-the-other-end
way of "learning" -- they drew nested boxes around the phrases,
learning absolutely nothing.


Close but no cigar on the age estimate. I'm 48 (35 + dozen + 1) and I
learnt to diagram sentences in 6th grade in the US, in 1968 or so. We
may have been the last ones to do so, I don't know -- although I think
I might have heard a buzz from other kids and parents if there had been
such a sea change (think of the costs for the new books!) in English
classes. I do remember the sea change with the advent of the 'new
math' (I don't think any of us ever figured out what the heck that was
about, I taught myself math after that).

cheers,
Stephanie
in Brussels

.

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