In the 1960s, fifth and sixth graders frequently had exercises where they had to stand in front of the class and deliver some report, do some math or spell some words, or answer questions. One exercise in particular stands out, defining words that the teacher threw at you. Our teachers were particularly concerned that one not start with the phrase "It's when..." or "It's where..." They would interrupt you with some pronouncement that it wasn't a time or a place and command you to begin again. So now the child is embarrassed in front of the class and has had their concentration broken and now has to focus on a something other than defining a word, but on not saying it's when, not saying it's when, not saying it's when...Even at the time I remember thinking If you'd just let her finish she might have gotten it.
This was what education was in the Good Old Days: pettifogging, over-literal pedantry that you dared not question. Intimidation was part of the pedagogy. It would not have occurred to them to let the girl finish and then gently say "That is correct, but it would be better if you didn't start with the words it's when. Try again." They wanted to make sure that the bad sentence never even came out of your mouth, because then who knew what other bad habits you would develop? Better to hit you with a rolled-up newspaper in front of the class.
Deeper in their minds, they were reacting against a change in the language, the growing popularity of an idiom they didn't like. Language always changes, but not in grammar schools in 1963. Grammar had been delivered to earth on tablets generations ago. In reality, the set of rules at a moment in time around 1900 were frozen in place. This is humorous, since the teachers of 1850 would have found the rules for 1900 rather suspect, and just plain wrong in places.
I still use too many commas, a relic of that teaching.
1 comment:
I notice that the new pettifogger is the AI being built into word processors and similar software, which has been programmed to hate "too many commas." The very thing we were taught was correct grammar is now being taught as bad practice.
Strange to say that "it" is not a time or a place. If I name an event --- say the D-Day Invasion of Normandy -- I can then refer to that event at 'it,' and it is both a time and a place. I don't mean the 6th of June this year, or Normandy this afternoon. "It's when the Allies made landfall in Europe to overthrow Nazi Germany" would thus be a perfectly reasonable response to the question, "What was D-Day?"
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