And I do have a Jordan and he must understand word functions, punctuation rules precisely

Well, I am in no position to second-guess Wordwind's judgment on that, tsuwm, but it strikes me as counter-intuitive, that's all.

Birds have to be pushed out of the nest to discover that they can fly. Most toddlers can swim before they discover a fear of water.

I just think, intuitively [I can't prove it], that we build up this great fear of reading and writing proper english in those who haven't been introduced to it at home, and they think they have to learn all this stuff in order to master the subject.

In short, they think they have to "study" it, when all they have to do is hear it, read it, and imitate it.

Personally, I think students who can't pass "Sound Judgment" should be placed in "english immersion" classes, just as parents put their children of tender years into "french immersion" classes.

In "english immersion", all these students would hear and read all day is proper english with caring and patient and consistent correction of their own spoken and written english without formalistic fanfare.

In "english immersion", overarching vocabulary and concepts and rules would be avoided as much as possible.** In such a setting, I believe Jordan would discover he can 'fly'.

But, as far as I know, no public school provides such a setting, therefore, who is to know?

Not Wordwind, I suspect, without actually trying "english immersion". And, certainly, not me.

** I don't want to be extreme about this. I see no harm in a child learning what a "noun", and a "verb" is, even an "adjective". I'm not sure they need to know what an "adverb" is because even to this day I'm not sure what an "adverb" is myself, and I've never suffered for it ... at least, until now.