And While We're On The Subject, I Object!

TC sent me a funny email analyzing the sentence "He was thrown the ball." I could only shake my head in admiration at someone who knows how to talk so coherently about grammar.

If there is one thing that I could never, ever get to stick in my mind, it's that whole subject/object thing. Probably started because my 7th grade English teacher was one of my all-time favorites, and my 8th grade English teacher, ehhh, not so much.

In seventh grade, we spent most of the time in class writing, getting help over the shoulder from teacher Dee O'Brien, and practicing giving each other constructive criticism. (Dee O'B also produced the plays of William Shakespeare using only 7th and 8th graders for her casting pool. After school. For free.) I still remember, to this day, the exact rules for using semi-colons, because Dee O'B told them to me in one of the one-on-one sessions. She gave me "permission" to use one, even though "I almost never do."

In 8th grade, with Mrs. ... well, she knows who she is ... it seemed that we were doing the same grammar exercises over and over for the entire year. I remember nothing about that year in that class, except the perpetual feeling of sitting at my desk, trying to keep from screaming from boredom, as she droned on and on. This is probably where I should have learned about subjects and objects and all manner of things diagrammatical, but I didn't.

So, the next time some politician tells you he wants to "impact the education process" (no, wait, that was the other George Bush), you should tell him that a good teacher is worth a salary . . . I don't know, at least 1/10th that of a CEO's?

Okay, Brendan. We get it. Air Force, bake sale, yada yada. Move on.