I only recently learned of this bizarre turn of events: The English Department at Rutgers University recently announced a list of “anti-racist” directives and initiatives for the upcoming fall and spring semesters, including an effort to deemphasize traditional grammar rules.
Rebecca Walkowitz, the English Department Chair at Rutgers University sent to faculty, staff and students the following: Department actions in solidarity with Black Lives Matter that ongoing and future initiatives that the English Department has planned a way to contribute to the eradication of systematic inequities facing black, indigenous, and people of color.”
Going forward Rutgers will deal with the so-called grammar pedagogy (teaching): “This approach challenges the familiar dogma that writing instruction should limit emphasis on grammar/ sentence-level issues so as to not put students from multilingual, non-standard academic English backgrounds at a disadvantage.”
In Wolkowitz’s email she said that ““The Writing Centers have developed two internship initiatives to support the goals of diversity and equity,” the email states. “The Plangere Writing Center currently offers a spring advanced tutoring internship called ‘Tutoring Towards Diversity and Inclusion’ and the Livingston Writing Center is developing an internship to launch in Spring 2021 titled ‘Decolonizing the Writing Center.’”
When asked whether the effort to “decolonize the writing center” and incorporate “critical grammar” is a wise pedagogical (educational) decision for Rutgers’ student body and university as a whole, Executive Dean peter March and Rutgers media spokesman Dory Devlin did not respond to a request for clarification.
Personal Thoughts
The decision by Rutgers represents a complete abandonment of my family’s belief system. That is, although all of my grandparents wrote and spoke English as a second language, they emphasized the importance of communicating in English at the highest levels to their children. Almost all of my Uncles and Aunts became professionals and fully articulate in English. All of my life I have worked hard to write and speak English grammatically correctly. I cannot imagine attaining my personal objectives without having this skill set.
How can America go forward as a nation of laws without appropriate grammar as the mechanism for communication?
Lastly, I cannot relate to our need to “decolonize.” I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle who has woken from a deep sleep my entire life. For me, the world is as strange as George Orwell’s 1984.
