Teaching correct usage effectively

Abstract

Any teacher counts it a banner day when her students are spontaneously responsive and deeply interested in the subject under consideration. Such was the case this past summer when one of the writer's students, a teacher of English in junior high school, gave her reaction to Robert Pooley's new book Teaching English Usage. This book had been lent to her the previous evening. She was so excited over the materials in it that she lost several hours of sleep and returned to class still enthusiastic. Her remarks were of this order: Just listen to this, folks! We don't have to worry any more about trying to teach boys and girls to say 'It is I,' or 'Whom did you go with?' This book says so. Again she would remark found it is acceptable to say 'They were very pleased with their new house.' I have always said sentences like some of these and had no idea that anyone had ever objected to such an expression. Folks, you should read this book. It really tells you which correct usages are important enough to include in your lessons and shows that we worry entirely too much about expressions that are acceptable. The writer's interest in developing an article on correct usage has been further increased by the fact that she is constantly bombarded with newspaper clippings about grammar. It seems that one columnist after another gets exercised about the poor English he hears on all sides and believes that the school's current neglect of grammar is largely responsible. This article is an attempt to clarify the meaning and status of correct usage. According to An Experience Curriculum in English