Rights of the Child in National and International Essays

Rights of the Child in National and International Essays Rights of the Child in National and International Contexts Theoretical Aspects. Vygotsky observed children as active learners who wish to make sense of their experience and he observed learning taking place in a social context. He discerned a process through which children grew into the intellectual life of the more mature children and adults around them. This was very much unlike Piaget who saw cognition and intellectual growth developing in a child in several maturational stages. To Vygotsky every function in the child's cultural development appears twice. First on the social level and later, on the individual level; first between people (inter Psychological) and then inside the child (intra Psychological) (cited at p 32 of S. Bartlett et al 2004) Vygotsky's seminal work was on the relationship between language and thought, for him "language was generated from the need to communicate and was central to development of thinking". Vygotsky also stressed importance of talk as a learning tool. Pupil talk is encouraged as it allows learners to refine what they know through expression of their thoughts. "Reports of some Eminence have reinforced the status of talk in the class room" (cited p 139 S. Bartlett et al 2004) Examples of such reports are the Bullock report (1975) Assessment of Performance unit report (1986). Concept of Psychological tools was a cornerstone of Vygotsky's theory. To him these tools serve as " a bridge between individual acts of cognition and the symbolic socio cultural requirements of these acts" (Kozulin 1998 cited at P138 in S Bartleet et al 2004) He explained inter cultural cognitive differences to "variances in systems of such tools and methods of their acquisition practiced in different cultures" (cited at P 140 of S. Bartlett et al 2004) The work of Vygotsky has pedagogical implication implying a problem solving approach for the learner and a enabling role for the Teacher. Brown (1994 :7 cited at P 141 in S Bartleet et al 2004) argued that "students navigate by different routes and at different rates but the push is towards upper rather than lower levels of competence". Grouping and pairing of learners with similar capacities was observed by Bruner as advantageous. In encouraging learning, to Bruner, good pedagogy encourages students to discover principles by themselves; the teacher provides an assistant's role. This implies an exercise of "scaffolding" put up by teacher, removed, when felt no longer necessary. A concept introduced by Vygotsky to explain the distance between a child's actual development as determined by independent problem solving and level of potential development under guidance with elders or peers was described as Zone of Proximal Development (cited at P 35 in Fifty Great Modern Thinkers, J.A. Palmer Routeledge London reprint 2004). These zones vary from pupil to pupil and extent of variation may pose a challenge to the teacher. Broenfen bremer (1979) offered a model of ecological systems to explain inter connectedness of environmental factors that impact on a child's learning. He proposed four "nested systems" of development. A micro system (home, class room) a Meso system (links between micro systems) an Exo system (setting where child does not participate and a Macro system (ideology, subculture where child lives). This model helps explain the inter connectedness of environmental factors, and its impact on a child's learning. As for example, how Health, parental care, national level policy decisions impact on a child's learning. (cited at p 151 of S. Bartlett et al 2004) Critical Awareness Child labour and child work are two terms that have been used alternatively. Generally a difference has been noted in house hold work and work outside the house hold. In such situations there is reference to external child labour or hidden or invisible child labour. Several authorities have identified worst forms of child labour and differences between "labour" and "work". In order to have a more meaningful understanding of the terms one goes back to the cause of child labour and remedies to such causes which may lead to programmes and campaigns that are preventive. Poverty drives the child to enter the labour market often exposing the child to dangerous and abusive work conditions. Child labour is defined by the UNCRC article 32 as the right to be protected from economic exploitation and from participating in any work that is hazardous or interferes with the child's education health or development. Work is identified as activities undertaken by children to contribute to their own and or family income. Some working children see it as dignified as it contributes to family survival others see work as harmful and exploitative. (http//www/savethechildren.org.uk/scuk.cache/cmsattach/411-childlabour) Save the children a Non government orgnaisation that takes a pragmatic approach to child labour

Definition and Examples of Word Aversion (or Logomisia)

Definition and Examples of Word Aversion (or Logomisia) In language studies, logomisia is an informal term for a strong dislike for a particular word (or type of word) based on its sound, meaning, usage, or associations. Also known as word aversion or  verbal virus. In a post on Language Log, linguistics professor Mark Liberman defines the concept of word aversion as a feeling of intense, irrational distaste for the sound or sight of a particular word or phrase, not because its use is regarded as etymologically or logically or grammatically wrong, nor because it’s felt to be over-used or redundant or trendy or non-standard, but simply because the word itself somehow feels unpleasant or even disgusting.   Moist   A Web site called Visual Thesaurus asked its readers to rate how much they like or dislike certain words. And the second-most-hated word was moist. (A friend once said that she dislikes cake mixes that are advertised as being extra-moist because that basically means super-dank.) Oh, and the most-hated word of all was hate. So a lot of people hate hate.(Bart King, The Big Book of Gross Stuff. Gibbs Smith, 2010) My mother. She hates balloons and the word moist. She considers it pornographic.(Ellen Muth as George Lass in Dead Like Me, 2002) Drool My own word aversion is longstanding, and several decades from the first time I heard it I still pull back, like the flanges of a freshly opened oyster. It is the verb to drool, when applied to written prose, and especially to anything I myself have written. Very nice people have told me, for a long time now, that some things they have read of mine, in books or magazines, have made them drool. . . .I . . . should be grateful, and even humble, that I have reminded people of what fun it is, vicariously or not, to eat/live. Instead I am revolted. I see a slavering slobbering maw. It dribbles helplessly, in a Pavlovian response. It drools.(M.F.K. Fisher, As the Lingo Languishes. The State of the Language, ed. by Leonard Michaels and Christopher B. Ricks. University of California Press, 1979) Panties Adriana recovered first. Panties is a vile word, she said. She frowned and emptied the caipirinha pitcher into her glass. . . .Im just pointing out its relative grossness. All women hate the word. Panties. Just say it- panties. It makes my skin crawl.(Lauren Weisberger, Chasing Harry Winston. Downtown Press, 2008)He used the eraser end of a pencil to pick up a pair of womens underwear (technically, they were panties- stringy, lacy, red- but I know women get creeped out by that word- just Google hate the word panties).(Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl. Crown, 2012) Cheese There are people who dislike the sound of certain words- they would enjoy eating cheese if it had a different name, but so long as it is called cheese, they will have none of it.(Samuel Engle Burr, An Introduction to College. Burgess, 1949) Suck Suck was a queer word. The fellow called Simon Moonan that name because Simon Moonan used to tie the prefects false sleeves behind his back and the prefect used to let on to be angry. But the sound was ugly. Once he had washed his hands in the lavatory of the Wicklow Hotel and his father pulled the stopper up by the chain after and the dirty water went down through the hole in the basin. And when it had all gone down slowly the hole in the basin had made a sound like that: suck. Only louder.(James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916) The Disgust Response Jason Riggle, a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Chicago, says word aversions are similar to phobias. If there is a single central hallmark to this, it’s probably that it’s a more visceral response, he says. The [words] evoke nausea and disgust rather than, say, annoyance or moral outrage. And the disgust response is triggered because the word evokes a highly specific and somewhat unusual association with imagery or a scenario that people would typically find disgusting- but don’t typically associate with the word. These aversions, Riggle adds, don’t seem to be elicited solely by specific letter combinations or word characteristics. If we collected enough of [these words], it might be the case that the words that fall in this category have some properties in common, he says. But it’s not the case that words with those properties in common always fall in the category.(Matthew J.X. Malady, Why Do We Hate Certain Words? S late, April 1, 2013) The Lighter Side of Logomisia Our theme this time was an Ugliest Word Contest: everyone had to show up with a sign around their neck on which would be written the ugliest word they could think of. All the linguists present would later judge the best entry. . . .On the sofa were PUS and EXPECTORATE. On the floor, sitting cross-legged in a half circle in front of the stone fireplace, and all balancing paper plates heaped high with nachos, hummous, and guacamole, I spotted RECTUM, PALPITATE, and PLACENTA (as one of the linguists, I knew that placenta would be eliminated quickly from the running: while it brought to mind an ugly image, its phonetic realization was actually rather lovely). In a fantastic coincidence, SMEGMA . . . was cuddling up to SCROTUM against the pantry doors in the kitchen. . . .As I walked around, I realized that a lot of these words would make great band names: e.g., FECAL MATTER (phrase: disqualify), LIPOSUCTION, EXOSKELETON.(Jala Pfaff, Seducing the Rabbi. Blue Flax Press, 2006) Pronunciation: low-go-ME-zha