Assign "ÃÂ1 20 September 2001 Education is a Multifaceted Job A Personal Philosophy A recent incident concerning my 3 1/2-year-old son precipitated conversation and discussion at the dinner table, which seems apropos as an introduction to my personal philosophy of how children learn and develop through different stages of life. The question arose as to how a child (my son) learned to correctly pronounce and use the four syllable word "actually"ÃÂ since there was no parent, teacher, adult or child, as far as I could determine, who had a specific interchange involving the word "actually."ÃÂ It had to be something the child pieced up in his daily environment, assimilated and utilized by himself. The discussion we had at the dinner table opened a philosophical Pandora's Box of questions "(1) From whom did he hear the word? (2) In what context? (3) Why did this word register in the child's brain as opposed to others? (4) What interpersonal mechanics were used to understand the word? To pronounce the word? (5) What allowed the leap from theoretical understanding of the word to actual correct use? (6) How did the abstract concept of a word modifier develop from the initial concrete understanding of a noun to a person, place or thing?"ÃÂ Meyer 2 Some of these questions can be answered by my personal philosophy of how a child learns.
Child Development Center nears completion at Beale...
baby while making his first steps
Lifeline Center for Child DevelopmentSome questions are merely a starting point, which can be expanded, and some questions, I believe, require the expertise of psychoanalysts and psychologists. However, there are certain fundamental "truths"ÃÂ about how children learn. Namely, that children are born as a tabula rasa, or blank slate, working initially from instinct and progressing to thought or leaned processes. Children mature into different jumping off stages for the next sequence or series of learning. These basic...