“Grammar is no more than a logical organization for the presentation of thoughts and feelings. ‘Structure,’ [Wendell] Berry says, ‘is intelligibility.’ And, ‘A sentence is both the opportunity and limit of thought—what we have to think with, and what we have to think in. It is, moreover, a feelable thought, a thought that impresses its sense not just on our understanding, but on our hearing, our sense of rhythm and proportion. It is a pattern of felt sense.’
To permit our schools to neglect the study of grammar is to deny our children the opportunity to explore the limits of their own thoughts and feelings.”
–Sam Hamill, “Orthodox, Heterodox, Paradox” in A Poet’s Work