The Idea of Childhood
Fall 2005

The Idea of Childhood was a series of interdisciplinary seminars sponsored by the James M. Johnston center for Undergraduate Excellence that brought together students and faculty in three different courses—two in the First Year Seminar Program and one in the Honors program— to explore ideas and assumptions about the construction of childhood and the way those ideas and assumptions drive or collide with our ideas about children. The three courses involved in this consortium are Childhood in America (History 49H) taught by Professor John Kasson, and Ethics and Children's Literature (English 6M) taught by Professor Laurie Langbauer, and Children's Eyewitness Testimony (PSYC 6E) taught by Professor Peter Ornstein.

The consortium examined: (a) the changing "constructions" of the concept of childhood in the United States across the 19th and 20th centuries; (b) the ways in which children may learn about themselves and their worlds through exposure to ethical issues in the books that they encounter; and (c) the conflicting views of children's cognitive and social skills that often underlie the differing perspectives of prosecutors and defense attorneys when they argue about whether we should "believe the children."

The three classes gathered for four programs across the semester:

In the first, students were introduced to the main concepts of the series through lectures provided by the individual members of the faculty participating in the series. Faculty then integrated the 2005-2006 Frank Porter Graham Lecture, Stolen Childhoods, into their course content and students attended the screening of the film prior to the lecture, the lecture itself, and then enjoyed visits by the filmmakers to the individual classes. Third, the students participated in an interactive and hands-on learning experience by gathering to read and re-write well-known fairy tales so that the endings of the fairy tales reflect our early 21st century beliefs about childhood; a lively discussion of the validity of those beliefs followed. Finally, students attended the opening of a “Windows on the Humanities” program at the Ackland Art Museum; students from Childhood in America presented their research and responses to pieces of the Ackland’s permanent collection that students in the class first selected as important to the ideas studied in class. Students in the psychology and literature classes then served as conference respondents at those presentations.

At the end of the semester, students from each course filled out an evaluation of their Symposium experience. Each student was also asked "What aspect of the interdisciplinary learning experience did you like best?" Here are some of the responses:

"I really enjoyed being a part of the consortium. The dinners and discussions enhanced by academic experience thusfar. I would highly recommend a consortium for any available subject matter"

"The opportunity to see an overview ofwhat other classes with similar issues were discussing"

"The social learning environment"

"The consortium dinners - they were a great way for us to hear about subject matter relevant to our course, but from a different point of view"

"I enjoyed getting to see what other, similar classes were doing in relation to this subject"

"Seeing what other classes were doing; meeting people; eating"