>>428085 Quoted for Truth. :)
I always thought that if children just read more for the sake of pleasure as opposed to studying, then they'd subconciously absorb the rules of grammar far more effortlessly. At least, that's how I viewed my own success: I was a voracious reader since I made the connection between printed letters, and the spoken tongue.
I actually abhored school because I wasn't permitted to pursue the subjects that really interested me, and to do so in the ways I really wanted to explore them. Electricity? Magnetism? Let's play with motors, and circuits! Physics? Let's build a catapult! Chemistry? Let's pour acid all over things! (Well, I understand why that one was a bad idea...) I felt so hinderred, and frustrated with the education system, I literally threw away homework assignments, and worked on my own little projects that had me trying to get a more intuitive understanding of how things worked. (Which helped immensely at my problem-solving skills.) I'm still that way to this day-- I have my own personal library of all manner of science and engineering books I glean from used book stores; and I still have little projects I'm always puttering around with.
Of all things, I passed highschool with something along the lines of a 3.5 or something.... because I could do exactly what you're talking about: I could understand the underlying concept, instead of just the face-value. And with the way my teachers had tests set up, it seemed near impossible to me that anybody just couldn't guess the right answer from reading the questions... which doesn't say too much about me, but rather the sad state of the academics you bring to light. It just wasn't as challenging, or as exciting as it should have been...
