Yeah, it's a generational thing. I think I learned everything I know about grammar from, in order:
- My mum
- Foreign languages (at which I am shit)
- Interactive fiction parsers (ditto)
- Fuddy-duddy teachers (often of subjects other than English[1]) going off-syllabus to improve people's basic writing skills
The pendulum has since swung in the other direction, so we've got teachers (of my clueless generation) inflicting voodoo grammar on kids who are expected to know about fronted adverbials and such.
Still, at least they finally got the right idea about Computer Science.
[1] In my day, this was divided into two subjects: English, which was about metaphysical imagery and rhythmic devices counterpointing the surrealism of the underlying metaphor and such, and English Literature which was exactly the same sort of bollocks, except you knew what the books were going to be in advance for ease of rote-learning the answers.