In regard to William Ayers` recent guest commentary (Op-Ed, Jan. 6) on whether we are failing to teach teachers, I would add to his thought-provoking ideas: Teach the teachers grammar.
I have been stunned and dismayed in recent years to hear teachers confusing the verbs ”lie” and ”lay,” ”rise” and ”raise,” and
”apprise” and ”appraise”; eliminating the subjunctive (”If I were”
has become ”if I was”); misusing pronouns (e.g., ”It`s a secret between he and I,” even ”me and Harry went to town”); using ”momentarily” as if it meant ”in a moment” rather than ”for a moment.”
If our children consistently hear and see our precious language used the wrong way, their ability to communicate precisely is imperiled. I hope no school system would tolerate a teacher saying, ”2 plus 2 equals 5 is close enough, or it gets the point across.”
No more should we allow the debilitation of our English grammar. I`m not a teacher, but I learned from some good ones.
