I am working with some people who reject the term "pedagogy" as applied to educating adults, evidently because the root word means "child". They use the term "andragogy" to mean adult education. I object to this one on the grounds that it's sexist. Can anyone propose a gender-neutral term? Is there a Latin root meaning "adult" that would form the basis for a suitable word?
looking for a Latin root for "adult"
- Thread starter professorcindy
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Wow, you're so smartprofessorcindy dixit:
no, it's not like the Romans actually cared for political correctness
are you even aware that the terms you mentioned are of Greek origin?
looking for a Latin root for "adult"
Only a small handful of members here know Greek, so we may not be able to offer much help.
As Bitmap said, though, the Ancients weren't too keen on political correctness - words referring to males were default, with the inclusion of females implied. Pedagogy is probably as "sexist" as andragogy, but I don't know Greek and can't say for sure.
Note that until very recently, English was like this as well - through a number of cultural movements that the Ancients never had, this changed somewhat. I believe that most Latin-based languages still use the masculine gender as default, not out of sexism but because that is simply the way their language is spoken.
There may be a gender-neutral word for "adult", but I suspect that any gender-neutral word will also be age-neutral.
Only a small handful of members here know Greek, so we may not be able to offer much help.
As Bitmap said, though, the Ancients weren't too keen on political correctness - words referring to males were default, with the inclusion of females implied. Pedagogy is probably as "sexist" as andragogy, but I don't know Greek and can't say for sure.
Note that until very recently, English was like this as well - through a number of cultural movements that the Ancients never had, this changed somewhat. I believe that most Latin-based languages still use the masculine gender as default, not out of sexism but because that is simply the way their language is spoken.
There may be a gender-neutral word for "adult", but I suspect that any gender-neutral word will also be age-neutral.
I still have an old-fashined book-on-the-shelf Webster's New World Dictionary, 3rd College Ed. - Pedagogy - Greek origin is paidagogia 1. the prefession or function of a teacher teaching 2. the art or science of teaching, especially instruction in teaching methods. (Are you pulling my chain?)Nikolaos dixit:
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Bitmap
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that's right. Originally paid-ag[o-long:3v13c1qj][/o-long:3v13c1qj]goi were slaves who took (/"lead") children to school.Nikolaos dixit:
pais is a substantivum commune (i.e. it can have either gender)Nikolaos dixit:
an[e-long:3v13c1qj][/e-long:3v13c1qj]r does mean "man" as opposed to "woman", but it can also just mean "adult/grown up man" as opposed to "child". Pseudo-intellectual attempts to identify any sexism in a word like "andragogy" are just plain stupid.
Well, I feel thoroughly chastised, and silly for not realizing the roots I was talking about were Greek, not Latin... but I did learn some useful information, so thanks. I think at root my whole objection was to trying to come up with some kind of serious-sounding classically derived word for adult education. I'm just going to encourage everyone to forget this silly word and use pedagogy.