Grammar and Rules and Such

I grew up in a household where grammar was not “taught.” My father, a high school English teacher and published author, strongly believed that knowing the rules of grammar did little to enable a writer to be a “good writer.” Instead, he often preached, anyone who wanted to know what constituted a well constructed sentence should simply pick up a book and read. The more a person read, he said, the more they would understand grammar. I never took a grammar class. I never learned the technical definitions of verbs, adverbs, infinitive phrases, or propositions. I just read a whole lot. Over time I picked up many of the rules from hearing people speak of them, and playing the somewhat awkward ice-breakers in class that always involved some definition or use of a grammar rule. On those occasions I listened carefully and made similar judgments to those around me.
Other than that I have never found my lack of grammararian rules to be a problem. I did quite well on both the SATs and the LSATs in the reading the writing comprehension sections. I seem to do fine writing papers. If you tell me that my grammar is wrong (who knows there might even be improper grammar in this piece) I will fix it according to how I think it should sound, not according to the rules surrounding the structure of the sentence.
From my experience, not knowing the rules of grammar does not mean that the individual will not be able to write well. If I did not know the rules and had never read much, then I might have a problem. I guess that in order to be a good writer there should be a balance of good reading, and some introduction to the rules of grammar.