I have been observing the lifestyle of the 4th grader who is spending a fortnight at our place and positively, I hate it. Poor kid is sort of pushed around everyday. Why? To impart to him the knowledge of English Grammar. He recites the parts of speech (I know them too, just in case you think I have gotten away with that), examples of each part of speech, points them out in a sentence and solves long worksheets on a daily basis. Why? Grammar. I sympathize with him and would like to point out that he’d be better off perfecting his theoretical knowledge of mathematics, such as study what a symmetry is, study what homogeneity is, study what polynomials truly are and so on. He’ll benefit that way. Instead, recite each kind of noun, pronoun, verb, adverb etc. I sometimes wonder what the point of all this is. Sure, if he wants to compete with Natural Language Parsers like montylingua, then it might help.. but he’s got world class search engines to find help too! What is the point of teaching someone non-functional grammar?
I believe that if someone gets grammar right, it has to be the CollegeBoard. Look at the SAT paper. No one asks you what a noun is or what something is. You are forced to learn how to use correct english so that your dialect (there are so many right here that every 200 miles, you may see English being spoken differently) does not hinder your communication with someone in the West or in another part of the world. Focus on that.
Even nature has an example for us. What does a toddler first learn? How to communicate, or the definitions of the parts of speech? So far, I have only used my knowledge of the parts of speech to pass the intermediate examination in English. Instead of teaching kids what the building blocks of English are, teach them how to speak English well.