The abbreviated list of prepositions I copied out in the thread starter, by the way, comes from one of the grammar books that is used in Chesterfield County.I am truly awed by your erudition, Wordwind, but if I was a student in Chesterfield County I'd be quaking in my boots at the prospect of writing proper english.
If Shakespeare had been exposed to the Chesterfield County catechism, or most any modern grammar school catechism, I daresay english literature would have been the poorer for it.
No doubt his genius would have taken flight, but it would have taken flight on clipped wings.
My guess is that he was certain enough of his powers that the damage would have been minimal.
Modern day grammar school lessons are less of a shackle for the gifted than for ordinary students, I suspect.
How many students who might have discovered enjoyment in writing have become casualties of this catechism, I wonder?
It is said that no-one writes anymore, at least with any respect for the english language. I am sure there are many reasons for this. Could this be one of them?
Kids today are too smart to waste their time learning something which is not only painful but pointless.
Proficiency in the catechism qualifies a person to teach it and that's about it.
No-one would deny that a soupcon of it is useful, even necessary, but in large polysyllabic doses, it is almost certainly grammarcidal to elementary and high school kids.
I mean no disrespect to you personally, Wordwind. My comments are directed at the educational system which promulgates stuff like "introductory prepositional phrases" for children under the age of consent.
