All societies seek to transmit their values, traditions, expectations, and beliefs to the rising generation. We can study this process and how it has changed over time by examining the lives of American children and the institutions created to train them. Every effort will be made to include the experiences of children both within and outside of middle-class white America. Class time will be devoted principally to discussion of readings, with formal lectures limited to topics on which no appropriate readings could be found.
Students share responsibility for the quality of class discussions.
This course includes a service-learning component. Please buy a journal without spiral bindings. Thus journals will average 3 entries per week for at least seven of the weeks. Teams will be formed in March and students are free to select their own topic on a contemporary problem in the history of childhood. One member should keep a log of time spent on your group research project.