Last year the Board of Education sold the "MCPS" name to Pearson Education, Inc for use in the creation of a national K-5 curriculum. The Board has "partnered" with Pearson in the writing of the curriculum that will be used in MCPS and then sold nationwide. Pearson is developing the tests that will be used in all elementary school grades.
The New York Daily News is reporting on a recent issue with a Pearson test involving a question about a...
TALKING PINEAPPLE...
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/talking-pineapple-question-state-exam-stumps-article-1.1064657#ixzz1sa0ZcbNx
The article is fascinating. To be clear, the quote that is the header for this post is from a Scarsdale Middle school principal. The article in the NY Daily News reprints the entire "question," if that is not a parody of it. So here is my comment: the first sentence in this god-awful story is, "In olden times animals could speak English, just like you and me.". It's been awhile since I took grammar, but shouldn't this sentence read, "...just like you and I.". The way I was taught, to cross check grammar, reverse the clause. When you do that, it would read, "me speak English.". Is that what our children at MCPS are being taught under the direction of this BOE, who approved the Pearson contract?
ReplyDeleteActually, the grammar in the example is correct because the phrase "just like you and me" is not the subject of the sentence. Therefore you would cross check it using the singular by saying "In olden times animals could speak English just like me." You wouldn't say "just like I." Therefore "you and me" is correct--at least that's the way I was taught grammar some 40 years ago.
ReplyDeleteVicki E.
More info about "I" vs. "me"--The word "like" in "just LIKE you and me" is used as a preposition to convey relatedness of one thing to another. Since it's used as a preposition, the pronouns ("you" and "me" or "I") that follow must be objective (as in OBJECT of the preposition) case rather than subjective case. "You" is both a subjective and objective case pronoun. "I" is a subjective case pronoun, while "me" is an objective case pronoun. Therefore, "me" is the appropriate choice and "just like you and me" is gramatically correct.
ReplyDelete