Teaching composition means, first, teaching good writing. Its purpose is not to produce professional writers but to enable every person to write clearly and intelligibly. Second, good writing is clear thinking. Muddled thinking and writing is a headache in every area of life. The Christian School [and Christian homeschool by implication -- AS] in particular should be most productive of good writing and clear thinking if it is intelligently faithful to its Biblical foundations. Third, the purpose of punctuation and good grammar is to further clear thinking, and hence there is a necessity for an increased emphasis here.
Thought without words is impossible for man. Thought implies structure, order, and words. Words give expression to ideas, abstractions, collective things, and constituent aspects, so that thinking is a verbal skill. Grammar then gives structure, intelligent sequence, and temporal order to work assignments. The word grammar comes from the Greek graphein, to write. Thought means words, and words mean ideas, structure. One of the names of Jesus Christ is the Word or Logos, meaning the structure or work of life....
If we deny meaning, truth, propositional truth, at any one point in the universe, we then deny it at all, and we deny God as Creator. Language is not only basic to our creation as God's image bearers, but as the medium of God's revealed word to us. Language is thus very important in the sight of God. Hence, the abuse of language to blaspheme rather than to serve the Lord is a very serious offense. To abuse language is to mistrust an instrument given by God, used by Him to communicate with us to reveal Himself, and ordained to be our most conspicuous and central aspect in the growth and development of godly culture...
Listen here as RJ Rushdoony develops this idea further.
