I suppose that I should first note that I'm a member of the older generation (read: gave up even pretending to be in my 20s quite a while ago ^.^). So my view on this matter is grounded in what is apparently 'old school' teaching methods. I should also note that I personally dislike the term "Grammar Nazi' (and thinks that it fails epically as a metaphor) b/c IMO, that term belittles the horrendous acts committed by the real Nazis.

OK, so having said that, why the continual decline in proper English (other language speakers, feel free to discuss status in home country), whether in today's books or everyday writing & speaking? Did its demise really start when texting came into existence, with further erosion via Twitter? Or are there more complex reasons for the ever-growing attitude that grammar doesn't matter in the context of books?

Anyone willing to dive in and share your thoughts?

FWIW, this issue is important to me not just as a book lover but b/c all too quickly, my kids will pick their own reading material. And soon thereafter, they will leave our nest to brave the working world (erm, I hope ^.^). I'm already stressing about how well-prepared they will be due to things pointed out in articles such as the following:

http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/16/vocabulary-is-to-obsolete-as-the-sats-should-bring-back-analogies/

http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/07/i-wont-hire-people-who-use-poo/

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/how-good-is-your-grammar/?_r=1

http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/improving-college-completion-reforming-remedial.aspx

http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/the-decline-of-student-writing-and-what-instructors-can-do-about-it/

That's some frightening stuff there.

I'm going to be biased here, because I love language and I love history. I know that everyone says English is an evolving language, and of course that's true. But that shouldn't mean we should forget our roots.

English isn't taught the way it used to be, and I think that's detrimental. It's important to know the parts of a word, and the difference between genitive and dative (not that I can remember them now) because they teach you how to put a sentence together. And if you ever want to learn a foreign language, you will need to know how to conjugate a verb.

I remember when I was in university we were set a poem and had to mark the stresses. I had no idea what I was doing, so I ran to my mother, and she showed me. This was stuff she'd learned in primary school, and I had never come across it before in my life. She'd also learned Latin and Greek roots -- I hadn't. And I can't even describe how traumatic my first few days in Old and Middle English were. Wait? The word "the" has all these different forms depending on the case? What the hell is a case?

The English language is wonderful and complex and has a fascinating history, and I think that if kids aren't given the opportunity to learn that, it's a very sad thing.

A lot of schools don't teach Shakespeare because it's "too hard". Well it wouldn't be if students were exposed to it earlier. I remember my Year 12 teacher said that he put it down to the fact that a few generations ago, everyone read the King James Bible, which kind of eased people into hearing English used a different way, and Shakespeare wasn't as intimidating. And not that everyone needs to read Shakespeare, of course. Hell, you're entitled to hate Shakespeare if you want. But by putting it in the too hard basket, it's depriving students of the opportunity to decide whether they like it or not.