Essentialism as Education Theory

Essentialism as Education Theory in the words of the following philosophers -- William Bagley, and Herman Horne states as follows:
A. Learning of its very nature involves hard work and often unwlling application.
B.The initiative in Education should lie with the teacher rather than with the pupil.
C. The heart of the educational process is the assimilation of prescribed subject matter.
D.The school should retain traditional methods of mental discipline.

The weakness in the above theories is that all activities are said to be concentrated on the teacher to the neglect of the participation aspect of the pupil. Learning experiences should be so modelled as to give enough room for pupils' activities. Again No D above talks about mental discipline . Mental discipline is important for the student but this must not be allowed to degenerate into rote learning. Again in assimilating the subject matter the pupils should not base their learning on cramming .Rather, the habit of constant revision will be used for much of personal study for the materials to be encoded in their long term memory.

The Perfective Aspect of Present Tense

In the last blog I explained that English has only two tenses morphologically speaking. These two tenses are present and past tenses.Today I am treating the perfective aspect of present tense, that is present tense, but perfective aspect. Aspect in English grammar will be discussed in my e-manual .

The following sentences show the present perfect tense so called. 1.He has broken the pot. 2. I have eaten the food.3 . Obi has drunk the water. 4. They have poured out the water. 5. He has bought a dictionary. 6. The mechanic has repaired the vehicle. 7. The tree has fallen down already. The seven sentences above show the the use of the present perfect to show a completed action with current relevance. Th reader should note that verbs in the present perfect tense must be in the past participle. Then the verb 'has' will be added to the main verb to form the perfect expression. For example in No 3 above, the verb ' drink' was used with the auxiliary verb ' has' to form the present perfect tense. Note again that the verb ' drink' is changed to the past participle 'drunk' to become ' Obi has drunk the water' which is the normal present perfect tense. So 'Obi drinks the water' becomes 'Obi has drunk the water' .

Benefits of Breast-feeding Your Child

There are many benefits inherent in breast-feesding your child. First, some antibodies against various micro organisms are transferred from the mother to the foetus via the placenta and help to protect the new infant against certain diseases, the most important of which is measles, during the first four to six months of life. It has long been recognized that the breast-fed infant against infections and particularly diarrhoeal diseases, and has a better chance of survival than a bottle-fed baby. Only fairly recently have reasons for this difference been established. These are:
Breast milk is clean.It is never strictly sterile, as their will be some contamination from the nipple. However, these bacteria have no time to multiply as the milk is drunk immediately.

Immunoglobulins, mainly IgA, are present in large amounts in colostrum and to a lesser extent in mature human milk. IgA is not absorbed but acts in the intestines against certain bacteria(e.g. E.coli) and viruses. Lactoferrin, a protein, which binds iron to itself, is found in human milk. The bound iron is then not available to certain harmful intestinal bacteria, which need it for their growth.For this reason, supplemental oral iron should not be given to breast-fed infants. (To be continued).

Perennialism as Education Theory

Perennialism as Education Theory was propounded by Robert Hutchins, Mortimes Adler, and they state as follows.They said that despite differing environments, human nature remains the same everywhere; hence education should be the same for every one. (B). Since rationality is man's highest attribute, he ust use it to direct his instinctual nature in accordance with deliberately chosen ends.(C).Again they stated that ' it is education's task to import knowledge of eternal truth.' And (D) that 'Education is not an imitation of life but a preparation for it.' And (E) that 'The student should be taught certain basic subjects that will acquaint him with the world's permanencies'.

Finally, they said that (F) ' Students should study the great works of literature, philosophy, history and science in which men through the ages have revealed their greatest aspirations and achievements.' In commenting on the above theories, I will say that our eduactional system will be readjusted to accomodate subjects like literature, history, geography and other social sciences so as to provide a conducive atmosphere for the production of school leavers and graduates who know the history of the world around them , have human experience for good interpersonal behaviour acquired over the years through literature studies and knowledge of their physical environment acquired through the study of Geography.

English Grammar--The Past Simple Tense

I have earlier on described tense as a change in the form of a word to show time.Morphologically speaking , English has only two tenses---Present Tense and Past Tense. All other configurations of the verb refer to what is called Aspect. That area of verb configurations, Adverb Phrases and their grammatical functions and many other grammatical points will be sent to you as e-manual right into your email box if you order for it.To place your other write to me using my personal email below.Meanwhile let me show you the simple past tense function.

The simple past tense is concerned with an action that took place at a given point in time in the past. In other words it is called past definite.For example , last year Okolo took his common entrance examination. In the sentence above, a definite action took place in the past and stopped there.o Okolo does not take the common entrance every year. Another example , 'The aeroplane flew from Kaduna to Lagos last week'. Here the past action is again definite.The plane does not fly every day. It 'flew' last week, a definite time expressed by a definite past tense form of the verb under discussion.It will be wrong for some body to say that 'The aeroplane was flying from Kaduna to Lagos last week.' What the student will use in this kind of grammatical context is the past simple tense as aready explained. In a similar vein it will be wrong to say or write , 'Okolo was taking his common entrance last year.
To order for your e-manual on English Grammar write to --- amekepaul@yahoo.com

Recipes for Good Health

There are four basic methods of achieving good health. First, one has to maintain good dietary habits. The different types of food like vegetables, cassava, yam,rice, meat, eggs , and maize should be eaten in their correct proportions according to the energy requirements of the body.The food must be taken proportinately to include the various food classes like carbohydrates( cassava,yam,maize), proteins (meat,fish, eggs), vitamins (vegetables, oranges,mangoes) and fats and oil obtained from red oil , fish and animal fats.

The next recipe for good health is relaxation after work. One should make a good time for rest after work.Note that there is a difference between rest and idleness. When somebody is relaxing when he has done no work, that is idleness. Relaxation must be a result of having done some work.Hence after resting you get invigorated to do more work.It is a disservice to persnal health for someone to be so busy as to find little or no time for rest and relaxation. Therefore always endeavour to give your body a good rest after each day's work.You need at least up to six hours of sleep in a day to maintain your personal health.

Another health recipe is physical exercise. You will make time for physical exercise every day. This is not saying that every body will be a sports man or woman. Early morning jogging in your room or compound will have done the trick. Even deciding to walk that distance instead of using a Taxi is another way of exercising your muscles. The next way to maintain your health is to avoid worry, especially for what you know that you cannot do. Why then do you worry about it? Relax, and take no thought for the morrow as Christ commanded us and you will save yourself much of stress in this twenty-first century.

Sex Education---Styles in Lovemaking

Lovemaking is central to any man-woman relationship. In fact some marriages are known tohave broken up because the man is unable to satisfy the woman sexually. There are various styles that can be used to make your relationship smooth. Through these methods you can you can satisfy your partner sexually and so solidify your marriage.

The first style is the normal man-on top style which is common to all.This is a good method because the man does most of the work to the satisfaction of both he and hiswoman, and the woman is more or less passive.The second method of love making is side by side.With this method the couple will be in their warm embrace as they make their love. This method allows the partners to be in a relaxed mood as they enjoy each other.This method works especially when the man is too tired to mount on top of the woman. Another style is woman on top.Here most of the work is done by the woman. The advantage here is that the woman controls the situation and enjoys her man as sweetily and as pleasurably as she feels. The fourth method is penetration from the rear.This is entering the woman from behind. This method is very pleasurable art of lovemaking for the man explores the different parts of his woman' s body with his hands for the maximum pleasure of both parties.

Theories of Education...Progressivism

Progressivism as educational theory was propounded by the following philosophers...John Dewey,William H. Kilpatrick, and John Childs.According to them...
A. Education should be life itself and not a prparation for living.
B. Learning should be directly related to the interests of the child.
C. Learning through problem solving should take precedence over the inculcation of subject matter. D. The teacher's role is not to direct but to advise.
E. The school should encourage cooperation rather than competition.
F. Only democracy permits -- indeed encourages-- the free interplay of ideas and personalities that is a necessary condition of true growth.

Analysis of the above theories shows that cooperation rather than fighting and intimidation will help our educational process to succeed.Democracy really encourages a free interplay of ideas and since a teacher works with ideas, he is bound to do well if he allows cooperation rather than autocracy to guide him in his profession.He will achieve many positive results in his pupils and students if they{the teachers} apply the principle of cooperation on his job.

English Tense Forms...The Present Tense

The present tense shows the action that is happening now.Tense is a change in the form of a word to show time. For example, let us consider the following sentences.
1. They blow the whistle. 2 John blows the whistle. 3 He blows the whistle. 4 She blows the whistle. 5 Okolo and Okeke blow the whistle.

The above five sentences show the use of the present simple tense for what happens everyday or regularly.Note the form of the verbs in each sentence.In sentence 1 ' blow' is present tense with plural subject 'they'. In sentence 2 'blows' is present tense with singular subject 'John'. In number 3 'blows' is also present tense with singular pronoun 'He' which is in the third person.That is the pronoun 'he' is in the third person singular and verb must agree accordinly. In number4 'blows' is also present tense with singular subject 'she' which is also in the third person singular.We note from the examples above that singular subjects have their verbs with 's ' or 'es' or 'ies' depending on the verb.But plural subjects do not take 's ' or 'ss' in their present tense verbs.

Sports---2010 World Cup Predictions

The 2010 world cup finals is around the corner, due to take off in South Africa next year.But the analysis of the just concluded leagues published by the Nigeria Daily newspaper will help us make some plausible predictions on the way the match will go.The reader should refer to the October 7 2009 edition of the Nigeria Daily Sun newspaper, pages 51 to 54. In the League Table,we have the English premier league with Chelsea and Manchester United topping the league table with 21 points and 19 points respectively.In Italian series A, Inter Milan and Sampdoria scored 16 points each to top the list. In French Ligue 1, Lyon and Bordeaux top the list with 20 and 19 points respectively.In Spanish Primera Liga, Barcelona tops the list with Real Madrid and Sevilla drawing second position with 16 points each.

In Oceania group, New Zealand tops the list with is points and New Caledonia coming second with only 8 points. For North,Ccentral America and Caribbean, USA tops the list with 16 points,followed by Mexico with 15 points. In Asia Group 1, Australia came first with 20 points followed by Japan with 15 points.In Asia Group 2 Korea Republic came first with 16 points and Korea DPR and Saudi Arabia drawing at second position with 12 points each.

From the foregoing we can see at a glance the sports movement of the 2010 World cup finals and winners can be predicted from highest scoring teams above like England, USA, France,Spain, Australia and Korea Republic.