Grammar has been eclipsed by gender ideology
Kids only know about pronouns in the context of gender identity
Children do not learn grammar in school anymore unless they attend Catholic School. There may be a few exceptions but you’d be hard pressed to find any elementary or middle school that is comprehensively teaching the structure of language to students. Noun, verb, adjective—maybe. But it usually stops there.
Funny thing is that students sure do know a lot about pronouns. They just lack any understanding of what a pronoun actually is. They can’t define it nor can they differentiate between a subject pronoun, object pronoun or possessive pronoun because no one has taught them how.
So how are young children so well versed in “pronouns” without having any knowledge of basic grammar? The answer is simple: gender ideology.
The only exposure that most young students in America currently have to pronouns in school comes from lessons about gender identity or from teachers who subscribe to gender ideology and insist that children who still believe in the tooth fairy indicate their preferred pronouns at the beginning of the school year. Some even do regular check-ins to see if their elementary school students’ pronouns have changed—you see, they also teach that gender is fluid and can change day to day.
When you hear people say that education has been transformed into indoctrination or taken over by activists and ideologues, this is a perfect example of what they mean. Parents (and the community at large) long believed that, at the very least, we could rely on school to teach grammar to children. We also held onto the belief that we could rely on that same school not to teach gender ideology to young children.
We were wrong on both counts.
Grammar disappeared long before gender ideology came barreling onto the K12 scene—for at least two decades, likely more, there was no conversation about pronouns, at least not until students started taking foreign language classes. The same was true with direct and indirect objects and the concept of an interrogative sentence. I spent many years teaching Spanish to high school students and I vividly remember students calling out, “you want me to do this in Spanish? I don’t even know what these things are English!” Yeah, no kidding. I can still picture myself saying on a loop, “the direct object receives the action of the verb and answers the question who or what? I hit the ball. What did I hit? The ball. The ball is the direct object. The indirect object answers the question to or for whom? I bought a gift. Gift is the direct object. To or for whom? My mom. My mom is the indirect object.
I confess that I love words. I reveled in teaching subject pronouns and object pronouns and possessive pronouns—all grammar. Zero ideology. So yes, the good old days before teachers told 1st graders that doctors “guess” the sex of babies or explained to 4th graders that “sex is assigned at birth.”
There are certainly people who think grammar is a relic and it’s more important to inculcate other people’s children into critical gender theory and queer theory. My gut tells me they are the minority. And while most parents may not have strong feelings about whether or not students should still diagram sentences during the school day, they do have strong feelings about the ubiquitous efforts to confuse their children about biological sex and force them into the ideological framework of gender ideology. Pronouns, as students understand them now, are part of that framework and it has no place in schools.
More info and resources :
Here’s a short video I did about gender support plans in schools—these plans are often *not* disclosed to parents.
"Children do not learn grammar in school anymore unless they attend Catholic School."
Erika: I tutor a 5th-grader whose Syrian parents transferred him from a district school to an Islamic school. I cheer at his homework in English Language Arts. They teach standard English grammar there, through an excellent, traditional curriculum. And he's doing much better this year than last. The improvement is dramatic. So I'd this small amendment to your statement, which just underscores your point.
“ I confess that I love words. I reveled in teaching subject pronouns and object pronouns and possessive pronouns—all grammar.” I’m a word nerd myself. Latin was my favorite subject in high school. I wish I could say I’m surprised about students not being taught grammar, but I’m not. It’s depressing, really, that (some? let it just be some) schools focus so much on gender & the formation of little activists, and kids will graduate lacking a basic grasp of how the English language works. I’ve always had a “multum non multa” (much not many) philosophy of education (I’m not a professional educator but a homeschool mother). There just isn’t that much time in a school day.
If given a clear explanation of the parts of speech, it’s not that hard to grasp. We use First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise, it’s quick & efficient, and a gentle intro Latin book. A direct object is the target of the verb, the indirect object benefits from the direct object. “The queen (S) gave (V) money (DO) to the poet (IO).”
I’ve got to say, with all the discussion of pronouns as they’re being discussed these days, part of me cringes when I have to go over them for our lessons. 😂