13 June, 2008 in The Australian – Ferrari writes Grammar Guide for English Teachers ‘full of basic errors’:
ETAQ president Garry Collins said the mistakes were “relatively minor” and the association had published an article on grammar by Professor Huddleston in the journal and alerted readers through a newsletter to his longer critiques published on the website.
“Ideally the errors wouldn’t have been there but these things occur in the best-regulated households,” he said.
“If coming upon these couple of minor inaccuracies caused teachers to be having conversations about grammar in staff rooms then I would see that as not a bad thing.”
Mr Collins accused The Australian of reporting educational issues with a particular slant, representing minority views, and said highlighting the Words’Worth articles would hamper teachers’ engagement with grammar.
“It would be useful if the paper didn’t seize on minority views but try to report in ways which are relevant to what really does happen in classrooms,” he said.
Kevin Donnelly also gets a whinge in, as usual claiming our education system has been ‘dumbed-down’. From his Op Ed Class-based waffle:
Many of those responsible for training English teachers and writing syllabuses are committed to a progressive, cultural-left approach to English as a subject, represented by functional grammar and critical literacy. As a consequence, not only do most Australian syllabuses fail to include a systematic treatment of formal grammar but many teachers lack the knowledge to deal with the subject.