Another trap that many people fall into is not recognizing that many of the grammatical rules they learned as children were just anal teachers trying to perpetuate their pet peeves, and don't actually apply in the modern world. Relax, look around you, and try learning English as she is spoke!
I agree that language evolves with its usage, but saying that grammar rules are simply selectively enforced pet peeves isn't true.
If you take a class in Spanish/French/German/Welsh/Klingon/whathaveyou, you'll have to learn the rules associated with that language. English, even American English, has a set of rules. English teachers are obligated to teach those rules, even if they are teaching English to native speakers.
In the broader sense, I don't like the idea of language being so malleable and so non-codified that people 100 years from now wouldn't be able to understand a book written today.
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I agree that language evolves with its usage, but saying that grammar rules are simply selectively enforced pet peeves isn't true.
If you take a class in Spanish/French/German/Welsh/Klingon/whathaveyou, you'll have to learn the rules associated with that language. English, even American English, has a set of rules. English teachers are obligated to teach those rules, even if they are teaching English to native speakers.
In the broader sense, I don't like the idea of language being so malleable and so non-codified that people 100 years from now wouldn't be able to understand a book written today.