The discussion of grammar has been ongoing for years and years, and I'm sure it will continue to go on. Rather than add to the argument here, for I feel somewhat like I'm preaching to the choir, I thought I might lay out the obstacles that I see to the actual resolution of this argument. I lay these out in no particular order:
Obstacle 1 – Tradition
I have a song around here somewhere that has the line "Man is a creature of habit, he's no different from a rabbit." While I don't agree entirely, I do find that the reason many academic institutions continue the way they do has a lot more to do with "we've always done it that way" than "it's best that way". A lot of the arguments put forth against any kind of educational change basically boil down to arguments against change itself, not arguments against the specific change in question. For an example, look at our own arguments. All of these are basically against change itself, be it our change or change in others: "Students won't be ready for what other teachers expect", "Efficient communication requires that students follow some standard of rules", "The standardized tests require them to know the rules of grammar"
Obstacle 2 - Learning Styles
Consider the possibility that grammar has long been a large part of instruction because some students learn grammar best by being directly taught the rules. Sure, some students don't, but many students do learn best by being taught the exact rules of grammar. While this group may not be a majority, they are certainly a large enough group to provide a significant argument against changing the system. A related problem is that percentage of students who will not learn grammar through any process other than direct instruction in rules. Again, not a majority, but a large enough group that they provide good resistance to change. The American educational system just isn't setup to teach these individuals differently. We always gravitate toward a panacea that will fix everyone's learning. It never works, but that's the way we head.
Obstacle 3 – Economics
English books make a lot of money. They are all based on the approach: Teach rule, provide specific practice on that rule, move on to next rule. It's much easier to make a textbook in such a fashion, and this is BIG money. That's a large block that will be against any different kind of system.
Obstacle 4 – Nostalgia
As Rose has said, education seems to always work to recapture it's glory days... neglecting to consider that we are in fact doing quite well right now. So long as you're trying to recapture the old days, as a system, there will be resistance to anything that isn't seen as the rod and ruler method in the traditional school house.
Obstacle 5 - Objectivity and statistics
Politicians and newspeople love numbers. They constantly push statistics to the public. One of the major socio-political movements of the last several years has been a basic distrust of the teachers and the educational system. The teacher's analysis of a student's writing is untrusted, they want grammar exercises and a grammar test to prove they are learning it and that they have learned it.
Obstacle 6 - Educational institutions are out of sync with the world
In general, institutions of higher education are out of sync with the world. What I mean is this... they tend to separate themselves, making their own decisions within and keeping all discussions out of the public eye. This is sometimes called "ivory tower" and other times excused as "they aren't specialists, so they wouldn't understand". Business want's college graduates who can write... but does that mean grammar? If so, how much of what they want is grammar and how much is critical thinking? Some professors, when they hear the request to teach students to write, think only of grammar.
Again, I'm preaching to the choir here, but I have run into all of these obstacles in the past, both in higher education and in elementary and high school. I'm sure there are more, but this is a good starting point. Any plan to actually cause change would need to address all of these, as well as the major objective, to teach students to write!
