Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 45 [-phobia/-phobe]
September 26, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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| (suffix)
-phobia/-phobe [from Greek]
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(noun) fear
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acrophobia agoraphobia [literally, ‘fear of the marketplace;’ irrational fear of open spaces.] arachnophobia [literally, ‘fear of spiders.’] hydrophobia [literally, ‘fear of water;’ irrational fear of water; rabies.] triskaidekaphobia xenophobe [literally, ‘fearer of the strange or foreign;’ person who hates and avoids foreign persons, cultures, or peoples.] |
acrophobia (noun) [literally, ‘fear of the high;’ irrational fear of heights.] triskaidekaphobia (noun) [literally, ‘fear of thirteen;’ irrational fear of the number thirteen.] |
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 44 [-cracy/-crat]
September 19, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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| (suffix)
-cracy/-crat [from Greek]
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(verb/noun) to master/mastery
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aristocrat [literally, ‘the best master;’ a member of the nobility or ruling class.] autocrat bureaucracy [literally, ‘mastery by bureaus (or offices);’ government by departments staffed by non-elected officials.] democracy [literally, ‘mastery by a people;’ government by the people, either participatory (direct) or republican (through representatives).] plutocracy [literally, ‘mastery by wealth;’ government by the wealthy.] technocracy |
autocrat (noun) [literally, ‘(one)self the master;’ a ruler with absolute power; a tyrant or despot.]
technocracy (noun) [literally, ‘mastery by art;’ rule by scientists or technicians.] |
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 43 [-tomy]
September 12, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes |
English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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| (suffix)
-tomy [from Greek]
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(verb) to cut
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anatomy appendectomy [literally, ‘cutting the appendix;’ surgical removal of the appendix.] dichotomy hysterectomy [literally, ‘cutting the uterus;’ surgical removal of the uterus, either wholly or in part.] lobotomy [literally, ‘cutting the lobe;’ surgical removal of part of the frontal lobe of the brain.] tonsillectomy [literally, ‘cutting the tonsils;’ surgical removal of the tonsils.] |
anatomy (noun) [literally, ‘cutting up;’ the science that cuts into a plant or animal to study its structure.]
dichotomy (noun) [literally, ‘cutting in two;’ division into two approximately equal parts or categories.] |
Time Magazine’s Untimely Education Meditations
September 11, 2010
Time Magazine just published its so-called education issue (Vol. 176, no. 12, September 20, 2010), to which I had looked forward eagerly. Unfortunately, it was disappointing in the extreme. It was not a clear-sighted and penetrating analysis of what is wrong with our public schools and what we can do to restore them to their former ascendancy. Instead, the lead authors showed themselves to be in thrall to the prevailing wisdom concerning the schools, and consequently, they offered only cosmetic fixes, they fixed blame along predictably prevailing lines, and they omitted any mention of the thing most needful for rescuing our schools from the whirlpool of failure in which they are trapped. In a word, they did not do their homework as assiduously as they should.
In particular, they failed to present any discussion of the single most responsible cause of the current dilemma of the schools, namely, the lack of a coherent, nationally uniform, and foundational curriculum in the elementary and middle schools. This glaring omission is evident in their failure to mention in their summaries of positive movements and instances of school improvement proposals the work of content-focused organizations like the Core Knowledge Foundation. Such an omission represents reportorial negligence bordering on the criminal. This results in a focus on a few “feel-good” scenarios that never come close to addressing the heart of the dilemma of our schools.
In addition, while the statistics presented under the title “Not Making the Grade” (p. 35) are important, the reporters seem not to have understood their import. In particular, the pie charts show that the performance of American students in reading (69% below proficient) is at least as abysmal as their performance in mathematics (68% below proficient). Although there is at least passing reference to removing the deficit in mathematics (e.g., the STEM program), nowhere in the issue is there any discussion of how to remove the deficit in reading, which is the ground of all other academic performances.
Furthermore, some of the statistical displays missed the point. For example, the pie chart under the title “What Will Improve Student Performance the Most?” (p. 40) does not even have curriculum revision as an option. To present without comment a graph that suggests that, for most Americans polled, the most important factor in student improvement is parent involvement, as important as that can be, is misleading and irresponsible. To take another example, in the display under the title “The Education Workforce” (p. 49), the statistic that 52% of public-school teachers had a master’s degree or higher is worthless unless one knows how many of those degrees were in academic disciplines and how many were in education (in which case, as most education schools operate, money spent = time spent = degree granted, usually without rigor and substance).
If the reporters had read articles like my “Seven Lies About Our Schools” (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1507455/seven_lies_about_our_schools.html?cat=2), or if they had read the works of writers like E. D. Hirsch Jr. and Diane Ravitch, they might have presented a more cogent and useful discussion than they did.
Far from being a useful and provocative spur to meaningful discussion about how to reform our schools, this issue of Time Magazine simply reaffirms the status quo. With friends like Time Magazine, education reform does not need enemies.
Latin and Greek Roots of English Vocabulary: An Online Manual: Lesson 42 [vers-/vert-, trop-]
September 5, 2010
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Root
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Original Meaning/ Usage Notes
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English Derivatives
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Vocabulary
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| (base)
vers-/vert- [from Latin]
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(verb) to turn
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conversion [literally, ‘turning together with;’ adopting of a new belief, especially a religion.] to reverse [literally, ‘to turn back;’ to turn backward.] versatile vertebra [literally, ‘turning point;’ one of the bones that form the spinal column.] vertex vertigo [literally, ‘turning around;’ feeling of dizziness.] |
versatile (adjective) [literally, ‘able to turn;’ able to do many things well.] vertex (noun) [literally, ‘turning post;’ highest point; point of intersection of the sides of an angle.] |
| (base)
trop- [from Greek]
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(verb) to turn
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entropy heliotropic [literally, ‘turning to the sun;’ growth of an organism in the direction of the sun.] trope trophy [literally, ‘(over)turning;’ prize for victory.] tropism [literally, ‘turningness;’ the turning of an organism away from an outside stimulus, such as heat or light.] troposphere [literally, ‘turning sphere;’ the lowest region of the earth’s atmosphere.] |
entropy (noun) [literally, ‘turning in;’ tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to move toward a state of inert uniformity.] trope (noun) [literally, ‘turn (of speech);’ figurative speech; figure of speech.] |
