Using Verbs Correctly

I love our language.  I love the nuances of the written word.  I appreciate a well-turned phrases.  I'm the sort of English teacher that becomes very passionate about my subject.  One of my favorite topics in grammar is the principal parts of Verbs.  I especially love irregular verbs.

Irregular verbs are the misfits of the English language.  They just don't want to conform.  Irregular verbs March to the beat of their own drummer and they're still out of step.

Today I taught irregular verbs and I'm sure that my nerdiness definitely showed today.  Repeating the conjugation of the verbs just makes me giddy.

The unit of study specifically focused on using the different tenses of Verbs in our own writing and letting our verbs show small subtle differences in our writing.  Every year the students are shocked to discover that they really don't speak good English after all.

I'm afraid and a bit dismayed though that we don't treat the English language as seriously as we should.  Somewhere along the line, the teaching of traditional English became a dirty word.  We've lost step with our roots.  We don't encourage good grammar like we should.  I sometimes wonder if I'm the last of the great American English teachers.

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