Cartoons From 1940s Grammar Books

Billy Mavreas of yesway blog has a neat collection of some wonderful illustrations by Lloyd Scott for Using Our Language, a 1942 grammar book for fifth and eight graders.

This one below is my favorite, just because it has chimps:

Who knew grammar could be this much fun? Lots more here: Link 1 | 2

Nowadays, kids are taught that grammar isn't very important, as long as they are "creative". Spelling is optional as well. Why constrain oneself to teh rules of othography? With writers like Cormac McCarthy earning the accolades they do, it's no wonder...

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If you speak poorly or use the language incorrectly you need only call it ebonics and its O.K.

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Q, that's an idiotic thing to think.
2008, for your intellectual growth.

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Q-
You are so dated! You can't call it ebonics anymore!

It is now the "dialect of African American Vernacular English", which is of course, a much more scholarly designation. If it sounds better, it must be better, right?

It keeps changing names every couple of years in an effort to give it some legitimacy: "Black English", "Black English Vernacular", or in my day just "Jive".

Word.