Normalista

[Joel S. Berson]

At 5/4/2012 12:04 PM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
> From a random discussion group:
>
>http://goo.gl/Z3mle
>>Normalista
>>
>>I`m having problems finding a translation for the word above. The
>>context is below:
>>
>>En esta muestra participaron dos de la especialidad (historia), tres
>>de formación básica y uno procediente de la antigua formación normalista.
>>
>>History majors, elementary education majors, and another type which is
>>now no longer used.
>>
>>The training consited of training to be a teacher not at the
>>university, but starting in highschool. Any ideas or suggestions would
>>be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot.
>>
>>Saludos.
>
>And the confirmation:
>
>http://goo.gl/CW1Rf
>>normalista sustantivo masculino y femenino (Col) primary (school) teacher
>
>Don't think this was the context of Joel's original quote.

Assuming Arnold's robes:  It was JL's original quote.

And of course there is the "normal school", s.v.
"normal" adj. sense 3 (from 1826):

3. Of, relating to, or intended for the training
of teachers, esp. in Continental Europe and N.
America. Chiefly in normal school. Now hist.
   In N. America, normal schools were for
training primary school teachers. In Continental
Europe, different normal schools also trained
teachers at secondary and tertiary levels.

And elsewhere the amusing quotation
"1862   Atlantic Monthly Mar. 389   Your Normal
schools wun't turn ye into Normals, for it's
clear, Ef eddykatin' done the thing, they'd be
some skurcer here."  But perhaps into normalistas?

Joel


>Nor is this:
>
>http://goo.gl/Ilq8Y
>>In this study, we examined the ways in which normalista teachers and
>>Mexican American paraprofessionals in a teacher-training program in
>>San Antonio, Texas conceptualize culture.
>
>;-)
>
>     VS-)
>
>On 5/4/2012 11:23 AM, Michael Newman wrote:
>>There's a common misconception that probably
>>has its origin in elementary Spanish classes
>>that any noun ending in -a is feminine. In
>>fact, -ista words are usually not inherently
>>marked for gender. A man can be un comunista
>>and a woman can be una comunista. There are
>>also a lot of other words that are
>>grammatically masculine but end in -a, such as
>>programa.  There are fewer -o words that are
>>feminine, the most famous being "la mano," but
>>there are also clippings like la moto
>>(cicleta), and a few others. But the -o is a better gender indicator than -a.
>>
>>
>>Michael Newman
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org