Comments by "Laurence Fraser" (@laurencefraser) on "" video.
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@ofdrumsandchords The reason why Grammar isn't (or wasn't) studdied much in school in English is not lack of interest... it's because a few decades back it was realised that the way English grammar had been taught up to that point was Absolutely Delusional Nonsense derived more from the ravings of ignorant rich people with a latin obsession than any actual study or understanding of English, and as such most of the grammar taught was Wrong. Actually factually incorrect. (For a classic example "Never end a sentence with a preposition"... depending on your definitions, in English it is either Impossible to end a sentence with a preposition (because it would, in fact, be a Postposition if used like that), or it is entirely right and proper to do so in many situations and attempts to avoid it often produce awkward, confusing nonsense... because that was never actually how English worked, it's just someone with a Latin obsession insiting that because it Cannot be done in Latin, it Should not be done in English, because, they would insist, Latin is the perfect language (somehow)).
Once this was proven, all but the most basic and easily confirmed facts of the language's grammar were ejected from most curiculums (note worthy exceptions seem to be largely American) on the basis that not teaching it at all was better than what came before, while Proper research was done into both how English Grammar Actually Worked (completed quite some time ago, you can buy books that lay it all out quite nicely if you already know something about how grammar and languages work), and how to effectively Teach it to students (a Much more complicated task).
My understanding is that that task has been mostly completed and the teaching of grammar has been reintroduced... when the absolutely moronic idea that teaching someone how to speak the common langauge so they can actually communicate with people other than those in the same village they grew up in is somehow 'oppressive', or even 'cultural genocide' (depending who you ask), and in fact somehow So Much Worse than... leaving them unable to access most services because they can't make themselves understood, isn't getting in they way.
Still, what this meant was that for a long time, "English" class was almost purely 'literature' class (or, in my case, arguably 'media studies', which is another layer of issues). And while it was reasonably common to add semi-related useful skill sets to Remedial English (how to write a letter properly, useful skills for dealing with government forms and documents, that sort of thing), 'normal' and 'top stream' classes included nothing of the sort.
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