Leader: Dr. Kathryn Smith

Dates: June 6 - June 22

Days: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Times: 11:00 am - 1:00 pm (AZ), 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm (CDT)

Cost: $125

View Syllabus

“Only when grammar is understood as living knowledge oriented toward verbal making can we begin to imagine an alternative to the two-fold suffering – the boredom and shame – that so often results from dwelling amid the lived contradictions of linguistic facts and values” – Phillip J. Donnelly, The Lost Seeds of Learning

The approach to grammar instruction in school need not be a tedium for either the teacher or the student. Unfortunately for some, the memory of such instruction has left them jaded or confused. According to Phillip Donnelly the main reason for this disappointment is the way in which grammar is presented as a merely descriptive and instrumental categorizing of words instead of a wondrous and lively insight into the basis of our shared communion with others. This seminar will look at grammar instruction in light of the essential connection between grammar and meaning that informs all human communication. While we will review its structural elements, we will also explore the nuances inherent in grammatical choices through examples from history, literature, science, mathematics, and philosophy.

Required Texts:

Donnelly, Phillip J. The Lost Seeds of Learning: Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric as Life-Giving Arts. Classical Academic Press, 2011.

Grenon, Rachel. Grammar: The Structure of Language. Bloomsbury. 2012.

Weinstein, Lawrence. Grammar for a Full Life: How the Ways We Shape a Sentence can Limit or Enlarge Us. Lexigraphic Publishing, 2020.