Doing it properly
Count yourself lucky, folks. The schools serving Marion and Florence appear to have some committed teachers who know what they are doing.
The most common complaint college faculty members make about the preparation students receive in high school is a lack of training in the basics of the English language.
At the University of Illinois, only the top 20 percent of high school graduates are admitted, and once they are admitted they must maintain at least a B+ grade average for two years before I ever see them in my classroom. Still, if I were to ask this very selective group of students to locate the verb in a sentence, they would grope around as if they were proverbial blind men attempting to describe an elephant. Their high school training never offered them any structure or discipline in English. It instead offered only self-absorbed opportunities for them to express their emotions.
Just as I was about to write off all high school English training as irrelevant, across my desk came a used copy of something called a "Writing Style Book." It talks effectively about the process of gathering and organizing information. It spends a few pages on something called MLA style — not a personal favorite of most college professors but still a solid topic. Then, glory be, it spends the last half of its 30 or so pages exploring basic grammar, punctuation, syntax and word usage in brief but effective detail.
All in all, it is a beautifully done summary, adapted from a variety of authoritative sources. And the most important words in this important book are the three words that appear above "Writing Style Book" on its cover: "Marion High School."
At a time when a lot of schools have retreated from giving students an appreciation for the structure and discipline of the English language, Marion High School seems to be keeping these topics clearly in focus. The committed teachers and administrators responsible merit our respect and admiration. Even if there is no main verb in the sentence, all we can say is: Well done.
— ERIC MEYER
