[greymule]

I was told, quite as a matter-of-factly, that they (professors) really don't care about the spelling or grammar, just as long as they can understand the point the student is trying to make.

I've been hearing this nonsense for decades. As if grammar and even spelling were irrelevant to expression and understanding. It is true that people can use bad grammar and still be understood, but what happens when they try to make lengthy, complicated points about subjects other than turning on the television? Correct grammar is necessary for accuracy and precision.

The sad fact is that many—probably most—teachers don't know much grammar themselves and couldn't correct it if they had to. It's much easier to have the class talk about "what life is like in my neighborhood." Many college professors don't know much about grammar, either. I know. I edit their writing.

Some cynics have proposed that because so much academic writing is utterly without significance, it doesn't really matter whether anyone understands it or not, but that if instructions to a telephone lineman aren't clear, there can be serious consequences.

BTW, the English language has not become universal due to the codification of spelling and grammar. What has made the English language universal is business and the money derived from it.

Well, I said that codification helped English become universally established. The fact that Britain, by the beginning of the 20th century, was the wealthiest nation in the world certainly didn't hurt. (They were soon broke, however.) But it is important that English is English, and the empire was not "Balkanized" in terms of language, the way some people want the U.S. to be.