Students interested in studying childhood now have the opportunity to register for the new children’s studies minor, which was launched at the beginning of this semester.
“Children are [an] interesting class of people because they are a class of people who don’t have full rights legally,” said Dr. Gerald Early, the director of the Center for Humanities and a co-founder of the program.
Others who collaborated in the planning of the program include Associate Professor of Psychology Desiree White and Associate Professor of Education Margaret Finders. All study children in their respective disciplines, so each had something unique to offer.
The interdisciplinary minor offers students the opportunity to take a wide variety of courses relating to children. Departments participating in the minor include education, English, history, psychology, African-American studies, and American culture studies.
Although the program has been in the planning stages for a while, the minor was officially announced last November at an event featuring leading children’s literature expert Anita Silvey, who wrote “100 Best Books for Children” (2004).
“The program was something that was a couple years in the making. It was meant to be an interdisciplinary look at how various fields study children and childhood,” said Early. “So it was meant to bring together disciplines of education, history, English. Those are the major fields, but we even have courses in anthropology and political science.”
Students who wish to register for the Children’s Studies minor are required to take 15 units of course credit from various departments. One course must be the introduction to the Children’s Studies, which will be offered for the first time next fall, although students can pre-register for the course beginning in April.
According to Dr. Early, the introductory level course will be taught by a number of professors and experts from different fields. Each week, there will be a new speaker who will discuss the way he or she studies children.
Early suggested that the minor will be especially useful for students who are interested in pursuing child psychology or for students studying education who might want to become teachers. Early also mentioned other fields that Children’s Studies might complement, including African-American history.
“For those students who want to go into the history of African Americans, these are fields where there is more emphasis on race and gender,” said Early. “[The] Children’s Studies minor can give a person an opportunity to study how people are affected according to how old you are in the culture of African-Americans. I would think for instance with all the interest in Islamic Studies, it would be very helpful for us to have [a] better understanding of childhood in Islamic societies, such as how children are raised.”
Some of the courses included in the minor are “Introduction to Psychology,” “Children & Censorship: What We Permit Children to Read and Why,” “Education, Childhood, and Society,” “History of the Golden Age of Children’s Literature,” and “Developmental Psychology,” among others.
More information on the new minor can be found at the Center’s website, http://cenhum.artsci.wustl.edu/childrens-studies-minor.htm.