What has happened to grammar and punctuation?!

Having recently proof-read over 250 school reports, I was astounded by the lack of basic grammar and punctuation skills exhibited by some teachers. Upon thinking of this further, I had a quick flashback back to my own teacher training and schooling, and realised I couldn't recall being specifically taught grammar myself.

This lead to the following wonderings:

*Have we created a cycle over the last few generations where a lack of basic grammar is so ingrained in our practice that it has disappeared altogether?
*How many teachers are actually teaching grammar and punctuation?
* How many teachers are confident enough in their own knowledge of grammar and punctuation to effectively teach / model it?
* What are teacher training institutions doing about this? If anything?!

I truly believe schools and teachers (including myself when I was in the classroom) have become so obsessed and focused on teaching the "Deeper Features" of writing, that the equally important "Surface Features" are being neglected.

Personally, I also believe that we are using the excuse of, "ICT is making it less important" too much. Children of today live in a world of technology. This is the world they live in, much as the world we grew up in was a lot more advanced than our previous generations. The importance and necessity of effective grammar and punctuation hasn't changed, merely the tools they use to deliver these.

I would be interested in your thoughts on this......