I'm a bit late here, but was entertaining for a long time the idea that the character of immigration is under represented in books for small children.

A lot of people are coming these days from another country, bringing in a different background, language, mind set, etc.

But nursery rhymes or kids books have not interpreted this topics well enough.

Excellent !!!!! So if the young lady does take up this subject, she already has her out line for the "thèse-antithèse-synthèse"

..... oh how I'd love to be young again and have a reason to study

I've just started a distance learning degree course with the University of London, 20 years after I finished my first degree. You're never too old to start studying again!

Don't worry, she can rephrase the research question later on in the process to get a better fit. You daughter probably has to get a topic first. Then do the research and then get the work done.


- What topics (Themen, thèmes) are of interest in her chosen area of investigation?
- What questions are unanswered or would need a complex answer?
- What is her goal? What does she want to get an answer about?
- What kind of research will be necessary?
- What kind of research would be beneficial or may help further?
- Where does she get this research material from, or from whom?

Then she can formulate the topic question:
- What is the specific area of my research?
- What is the result she wants to get at? or what thesis does she want to defend and prove in her work?

Then, she does the work. The end.

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Es wird nichts ausgelassen, um mich hier herauszuekeln. Ein Lehrbuch. False accusations and attacks continue. There is no stopping righteous people when they are wrong.

If she is good at languages, there should be enough material around to look at the syntax and etymology of the words in the nursery rhymes/poems as well as the meaning behind them. Could she do a paragraph on how all the rhymes help the child developmentally, and what are they teaching the child morally!

I like the ideas that everyone came up with!

Etymology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology

Congrats! There is hope for us all so!

Hi There

You are not at all late, in fact the responces are really helping her coming closer to the theme. Thanks a lot for your offer, in fact she could really do with those two books about nursery rhymes. I will PM you for more details.

Thanks again and have a good sunday.

Hi There

Very interesting indeed! Actually I discussed with her that she could do something realted with imigration as well. But she said there are so many kids in the school who are doing and who have done projects on this subject. But as you say imigration through nursery rhymes sounds really good.

Thanks and have a good sunday

Hi There

You have really put up very nicely the steps to work with. Right now, those are the questions she's working on.

She's planing to do something along the lines of: What were the origins of Nursery rhymes? In what context were they invented? What was their historical background?

And because she really wanted to have a creative part in her Maturaarbeit, she'd like to chose around 3 rhymes to write short stories in the setting of the time period they were written in, showing the circumstances they might've been created in.

She has to include that in her "Fragestellung"(topic questions) and she's having a bit of trouble with that.


Thanks for your help and have a nice sunday!

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pink pompom

Dear EFers

We really appreciate your input and feedback on this topic. It has really helped my daughter alot!

The meeting with her mentor went really well. She discussed the nursery rhyme topic with her and her mentor agrees it would be a great topic.

She's going to do research on a couple of nursery rhymes (What is their origin? What is their historical background and the context in which they were written? What was their original meaning?)

As I mentioned in the last post, she is also going to write 3 short stories set in the time period they were created in, to show in what circumstances they might've been invented in.

Just wanted to share with you how it went and what she's decided on. All of your input and support have really given her clarity on the subject and she's really excited to write about it.

Thanks again from a very satisfied mother, and have a nice day.

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pink pompom

Paddington Bear?

If she's looking into nursery rhymes, another thought might be the two Jasper Fforde books, The Big Over Easy and The Fourth Bear and look at the two nursery rhymes/fairy tales on which they are based (Humpty Dumpty and Goldilocks & the Three Bears) and how the author has used/subverted them? (they're a damned good read too!)

In a not entirely dissimilar vein, Tolkien projected a possible history of "The man in the moon" in which he prosed that The Man in the Moon was originally some sort of powerful mythological being, but over time lost this power and became more a lesser being who underwent various punishments for petty offences (such as stealing bits of wood), and then ended up as the subject of comic songs and jokes, with only meaningless snippets taken out of context from that being recombined into the present version of the nursery rhyme. I can direct you to some sources if you're interested in details. There is an essay called "The Man in the Moon, structural depth in Tolkien" by Prof T Honegger that you should be able to find in a library.