Thinking back to when I was first learning the basics of grammar in elementary school, I would always struggle to use language in a way that was acceptable to my teachers. Coming from a Spanish speaking family, I would pronounce words as my mother taught me. This was always a problem with my teachers, as they would tell me to improve on my grammar and spelling. One memory that stuck with me is my constant bad grades in writing. I would always use “you and me” in my writing, instead of “you and I”. I would also pronounce words differently, having trouble with run on sentences and double negatives which translated to my writing. Another point that my teachers always enforced was no use of slang or abbreviations. Even today, my spelling isnt the best, and I do struggle with public speaking. I would say that prescriptivism was the basis of my early education. From a young age practicing how we speak is crucial to our ability to speak. However, the strict rules and standards that prescriptivism enforces isnt necessarily how we should understand language. Although I would say my teachers in elementary school helped my writing in the long run, I wish there were fewer rules when it comes to speaking formally.