Nouns and Adjectives and British Authors, Oh My!

As I watch middle schoolers complete their first round of grammar quizzes this school year, I am reminded of a recent professional development where speaker Dr. Brett Salkeld referenced this quote from Friedrich Nietzche: “I am afraid we are not rid of God because we still have faith in grammar.” If one of the architects of modern atheism disliked grammar so much, then nouns and adjectives must be pretty important. As Salkeld reminded us, the orderliness of language reflects the orderliness of the universe as God created it. The rules of grammar–like the rules of gravity, physics, or morality–are meant to set us free.

And indeed, the writers we are reading in literature class WERE free! They knew the rules of grammar and they followed them to great effect. Not only are the stories they wrote “good English” in the sense that it is possible to understand them. They are “good English” in the sense that they are beautiful and moving. Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty inspired society with a desire to be kinder to mankind as well as to animals. C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has been helping people understand the magic of salvation history since it was published. These authors knew their English grammar–including where to put commas for nouns in direct address and how to form a proper plural possessive.

Who knows? Maybe someday soon, a Royalmont graduate will be using the skills they learned in ELA class to write the newest addition to the English canon of literature.