Garner's work is never done

From Garner: "It is rank superstition that [and] cannot properly begin a sentence. . . . Schoolteachers may have laid down a prohibition against the initial and to counteract elementary-school students' tendency to begin every sentence with and. As Follett and Amis point out, the same superstition has plagued but. The very best writers find occasion to begin sentences with and . . . ." Bryan A. Garner, Garner's Modern American Usage 44 (2003). He similarly offers, "Like And and But, So is a good word for beginning a sentence." Id. at 733. And he observes, "There's an odd myth that it's poor grammar to begin a sentence with because. . . . [T]he 'rule' has never had any basis in grammar, and good writers often have occasion to put the cause before the effect . . . ." Id. at 89.

From my second grader's homework instructions tonight: "Remember that sentences do not begin with the words and, so, but, because and to." To err is human . . . .