An examination of the history of the practical grammar, of which the college handbook is the modern reflex, reveals why the grammar handbook is so stubbornly resistant to changes in linguistic theory, usage, or ideology. First, codifying English grammar and producing texts for teaching English grammar to school children during the eighteenth century was in the hands of amateurs or schoolmasters, rather than those concerned with linguistic theory. This disjunction between linguistics and school grammars came about because the producers of grammars were rarely trained linguists, and because the usual requirements for authorial originality have been waived for producers of grammars. Thus there has traditionally existed neither the means nor the necessity for external forces to shape the making of grammars. Approaching the pedagogical grammar from this generic perspective reveals some interesting ramifications: (1) the oft-described "conservatism" of the school grammar is more etymological than ideological; (2) as a result of its generic self-referentiality, the modern grammar is a veritable pantry of anachronisms; and (3) even minor modifications within the pedagogical grammar, when they occur at all, are accomplished at a glacial pace. Research that is "informed by awareness of the past"--awareness of the inherent and long-standing constraints of the pedagogical grammar as a genre--should facilitate the production of a more flexible vehicle, one capable of responding to current thinking and serving current needs. (NH)