Headline Defense

As a graduate of Clairemont High School and as someone whose subsequent education has been very similar to Nina Manzi’s, I read with great interest her account of her high school years (“Looking Back At High School: Band Was Great But Grammar Was Lost”) and Jim Grove’s letter objecting to the headline. While my memory of those adolescent years is somewhat less fond than Manzi’s, I must stress my agreement with her about the inadequacy of instruction in both grammar and writing.

Manzi and I were both fortunate to take English from Mr. Grove, who required us to write constantly and to think about our writing. In Grove’s assertion that Clairemont’s students were encouraged to master the English language, he has overlooked the fact that most students at Clairemont High did not have an experience similar to ours. Those of us who wanted to take Mr. Grove’s class had to be selected on the basis of an essay we wrote; in my class, there were fewer than 20 of us. I can’t emphasize enough that the practice in writing that we got was the exception, not the rule.

Thus, I think The Times’ headline is not at all inaccurate. While Manzi and I and a few others were fortunate in picking up writing skills in school, most students are never thoroughly exposed to instruction in grammar or writing, in high school or at the elementary or junior high school levels. The Times’ headline may not describe Manzi, but it probably sums up the experience of 98% of high school students--at Clairemont and in the country as a whole--and provides a needful reminder of the sorry state of our system of education.

REBECCA S. LOWEN

San Diego