By identifying the cultural roots of traditional grammar, a better understanding may occur as to why grammar will continue to be taught the way it is. The idea of "grammar as cultural heritage" begins with language and literature studies, which were the foundation of middle and upper class Roman schooling and included reading, writing, listening,…

Provides a historical sketch of grammar study since the Romans to identify assumptions about grammar inherited or developed by nineteenth-century educators, who passed them on in ways modern educators might not recognize. Argues that the effect of this philosophical line is that the teaching of traditional grammar still has public and…