pedo-, paedo-, ped-, paed-, paido-, paid-
(Greek: child, boy; infant)
The British tend to use paed- while those in the United States tend to use ped-. Remember that the Greek ped- means "child" while the Latin ped- means "foot". Don't confuse this Greek element with another Greek pedo- which means "ground, soil, earth".
2. One who cures deformities; an orthopedic surgeon.
Originally from Greek paideia, "child rearing"; applied specifically to childhood bone disorders.
Education today, more than ever before, must see clearly the dual objectives: education for living and educating for making a living.
2. A teacher of children: A pedagogue is someone whose occupation is the instruction of children or youths, also called a schoolmaster, and has a negative implication of being very strict and instructs in a dogmatic manner.
Being a pedagogue was and still should be considered an honorable profession!
A pedagogue is now defined as a "schoolteacher, an educator". Originally, it came from Latin paedagogus, a slave who supervised a boy, or boys, including some degree of education. Girls were not a part of the educational system in classical times.
Apparently, the girls were "home-taught" by their mothers or female slaves to be prepared for restricted careers as wives and not for intellectual pursuits as in our modern times.
In wealthier Grecian families, there was at least one slave, especially selected for learning, whose duty it was to take care of the sons of the family during boyhood. One of these duties was to accompany his assigned boys, when they went on the public roads, to and from the gymnasium, or to other places.
Due to the nature of his duties, such a slave was known, in Greek, as a paidagogos, literally a "leader of boys", from pais, "boy", and agogos, "leader".
Sometimes the pedagog was himself a man of high learning, unfortunate enough to have been captured in warfare and subsequently sold as a slave, especially after the Romans defeated the Greeks. In some instances, he also served as a tutor to the boys of the family.
It should be kept in mind that in its original sense, pedagogue did not mean a teacher, but described as the servant who led the well-to-do Greek boy to the gymnasium (school) and then later the "better educated" and captured Greek slave was responsible for the wealthy Roman boys.
Despite the current pejorative senses that have been attached mostly by Americans to pedagogue, pedant, pedantic, and pedantry, such derogatory applications still have not included pedagogik, "of the art of teaching".
Pedophilia originally meant "a love" or "fondness" for children without any sexual deviation applications
Despite the pejorative meaning now applied to pedophilia, etymologically it has had a moral and fully acceptable and positive reference to anyone who loves and cares for children, such as parents, grandparents, teachers, etc.
The more appropriate term for child molesters is paraphilia which is used in psychiatry to mean "sexual deviation" and "sexual perversion", which are two major groups of sexual disorders.
The job of a teacher is to excite in the young a boundless sense of curiosity about life, so that the growing child shall come to apprehend it with an excitement tempered by awe and wonder.
Too often, education is the period during which some are being instructed by those they do not know, about something they do not want to know.
2. One who makes a display of learning, especially with books; also, an erudite person who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the use or presentation of his knowledge; a formalist or precisionist in teaching or scholarship.
3. Someone who makes an excessive or inappropriate display of learning.
4. A person who over emphasizes rules or minor details and who adheres rigidly to book knowledge without regard to common sense.
2. Etymology: from Middle French pedant, pedante, from Italian pedante "a teacher, a schoolmaster", of uncertain origin, traced by some sources to Latin paedagogans, present participle of paedagogare, "to teach", from Greek paedagogein, "to instruct children".
Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.
A pedantocracy can also be a government that requires full details when administering issues in the laws that have been passed.
2. Etymology: from Middle French pedante, from Italian pedante, “a teacher, a schoolmaster", of uncertain origin, traced by some sources to Latin paedagogans, present participle of paedagogare, "to teach"; from Greek paedagogein "to instruct children."
Pedantry started out as a derivative of pedant, a noun that started out meaning "teacher" but then it indicated "someone who tends to brag about his or her scholarly achievements."
