For students who cannot stop kidding around, there will soon be an outlet on campus for exploring childhood by cultural, scientific, historical, aesthetic and theoretical means. A new Children Studies minor, currently in the final stages of approval, is an interdisciplinary minor including courses in psychology, education, English, African and African-American Studies.

“There is a strong fascination in children for students,” said Professor Gerald Early, director of the Center for the Humanities. “We wanted several people to teach courses that deal with children.”

Early and Professor of Education Margaret Finders, who have been working together to create the new minor, both expressed hope that students from different disciplines would be interested in Children Studies.

“I’m really excited,” said Finders. “This pertains to career opportunities in all directions. Many students are not in a position to major in education but have an interest in children. This has everything to do with how our community thrives.”

The project began over a year ago.

“This started as a study group with Professor Early, myself, psychology professors, medical professors, and African-American Studies professors,” said Finders. “We met once a month and we each read something about children. We looked at how medicine, psychology, and other fields view children.”

Early and Finders wrote up a proposal, which was sent to a committee. After numerous revisions, it was finally passed.

“It’s pretty much approved, since the committee approves it,” said Early. Faculty still must give the final approval, explained Early.

The new minor will incorporate psychology classes including “Intro. to Psychology” and “Child Development,” along with education courses such as “The American School” and English courses like “Children and Censorship.”

“Since this is an interdisciplinary minor, we want to include courses from across the board,” said Early. “We want to encourage new courses as well.”

The proposal states that the minor would be “attractive to students in Education, Psychology, English, History, and Social Thought and Analysis.”

“It sounded really interesting, and a lot of the courses match courses I have taken or will be taking,” said sophomore education student Dallas Bryson. “If I were to get another minor, that would be it. Ultimately, I want to open my own school. If I were to do this minor, it would help me think of ways to structure school based not only on educational principles but also on what will be best for the kids. It would be a more well-rounded curriculum.”

Although Bryson is not currently planning on doing a Children Studies minor, she is in favor of the new program, especially for elementary education majors.

“If you’re going to be teaching kids, this will help you go back to thinking about kids from a different perspective,” said Bryson.

To promote the program, Professors Gail Boldt and Cynthia Lewis will present “What is a Child: A Discussion on Contemporary and Conflicting views of Children and Childhood,” on Jan. 24. Other planned events to promote the minor include a conference in conjunction with the Film and Media Studies department in April.

“If [this film event] is successful, we will do it every year,” said Early. “Our hope would be to have people involved in children’s TV and movies and to bring in children who make films.”

In addition to the new minor, Early is creating a toy museum in the basement of the Center for the Humanities.

“I feel strongly that studying children has a lot to do with studying stuff,” said Early. “Children have a lot of stuff around them. We need to have more material for students to look at.”

This semester, the displays have concerned presidential elections. Toys included board games, talking dolls and pins. In the near future, the museum will focus on Black History Month and then Women’s History Month. There is also a growing collection of children’s literature.

“This begins several things, including a toy collection, an enriching and expanding of children’s literature and an understanding through objects and stuff of children,” said Finders. “This disrupts a sense of childhood as innocence, and instead presents it as part of the economy.”

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