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HIST 460/560 (CRN 37037 / CRN 37038)
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Who counts as a child? How long does childhood last? What makes chilhood a unique phase of life and gives it special significance as a social priority? This course grapples with the social experiences and cultural meanings of childhood by introducing students to both classic and contemporary perspectives drawn from a wide range of fields, including history, psychology, anthropology, law and social policy, journalism, and literature. It will address issues ranging from work and development to creative and visual representations of childhood. The course will also include a special 4-week unit examining autism and developmental disability. Although the primary emphasis will be on children and childhood in the modern United States, the course will also consider how childhood varies across time and culture. We will begin by addressing directly one of the fundamental challenges facing anyone interested in childhood studies: the fact that it is an enterprise defined and conducted almost entirely by adults. During the term, we will explore such topics as the following: the logic of development and the growth of a science of childhood; cross-cultural perspectives; the challenge of balancing children's rights and children's needs. Format: This course will include some lectures to provide basic background and context. A significant emphasis in the course, however, will be on reading and discussion. Students are expected to come to class prepared to talk. Active participation is a very important part of the course. |
WRITING REQUIREMENTSThere will be one 5-page essay, a 5-page assignment related to the autism unit, and a take-home final exam. Please remember to double-space and type all of your assignments in a 12-point font. Do not forget to include page numbers. For additional writing tips and resources, please consult the section of my website titled "Writing." I also expect students to turn in three questions or comments about the reading before each class. This will not be graded, but 1. The essay will take the form of a 5-page book review. You may write about either If We Could Change the World or Pictures of Innocence. I have posted some guidelines for writing book reviews. Those students who would like more options may select another book from the list of recommended readings. Students are expected to make final decisions about their book reviews by week 3, when they will hand in a paragraph-long statement explaining their choice. The review itself is due at the beginning of week 6, before class. 2. For the essay related to the autism unit, select a topic, person, or organization from this list. (If you are interested in writing about something that does not appear on the list, please consult with the instructor in advance.) Explain concisely 1) what you learned about the subject you chose, and 2) what it adds to our understanding of autism in the modern United States. This assignment is due at the end of week 9. 3. The take-home final exam will consist mainly of essay questions that cover the readings and synthesize the main themes of the course. Please notice that the bulk of written work is due during the second half of the term. Plan your time accordingly. |
READING REQUIREMENTSRequired reading does not mean required buying. You can find all of the texts below on reserve in Knight Library as well as at the UO Bookstore. De Schweinitz, Rebecca. If We Could Change the World: Young People and America's Long Struggle for Racial Equality. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. Grandin, Temple. Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism. 1st ed. New York: Doubleday, 1995. Higonnet, Anne. Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1998. Mead, Margaret. Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1928. |
THINKING REQUIREMENTSHistory is a discipline that requires discipline, no less than neuroscience, music, or engineering, That means you should expect this course to require real time and effort. But history repays those who devote time and effort to it many times over. If you work hard in this course, you can expect the tangible reward of improved skills in writing, reading, and critical analysis along with the pleasure of learning. History also promises to make us more interesting people and better, more insightful citizens of our communities and our world. |
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Academic Honesty Lateness Policy Accommodations |
GRADESAttendance and Participation, including reading questions: 20% |
Course Calendar
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Week 1 |
What Is Childhood? When does it begin and end? Why does it matter as a social and historical category?Wednesday, April 3 / Introduction Friday, April 5 / Theorizing Childhood: Development, Dependency, History Questions / What does is mean to say that children and childhood are not fixed categories? / Can we understand childhood without also understanding adulthood, parenthood, families, and communities? Reading / Age of consent laws, table Glaberson, William, "Nation’s Pain Is Renewed, and Difficult Questions Are Asked Once More," New York Times, December 14, 2012. Landler, Mark and Peter Baker, "‘These Tragedies Must End,’ Obama Says," New York Times, December 16, 2012. Gilman, Priscilla, "Don't Blame Autism for Newtown," New York Times, December 17, 2012. Obama, Michelle. Remarks at Let's Move! Active Schools launch, February 28, 2013. Schwarz, Alan, and Sarah Cohen. "A.D.H.D. Seen in 11% of U.S. Children as Diagnoses Rise." New York Times, March 31, 2013. on pricing the priceless child: childhood, value, and the market Zelizer, Viviana A. "The Price and Value of Children: The Case of Children's Insurance." American Journal of Sociology 86, no. 5 (1981): 1036-56. Schor, Juliet B. "Understanding the Child Consumer." Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 47, no. 5 (2008):486-90. on the purpose of childhood studies and the challenge of locating children's voices, activities, and agency Matthew Speier, “The Adult Ideological Viewpoint in Studies of Childhood,” in Rethinking Childhood: Perspectives on Development and Society, ed. Arlene Skolnick. Boston: Little, Brown, 1976, 168-186. briefly, on children in history excerpt from Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood. Translated by Robert Baldick. New York: Vintage Books, 1962. Fass, Paula S., and Mary Ann Mason, eds. Childhood in America. New York: New York University Press, 1999, Introduction. |
Week 2 |
Science: Conceptualizing DevelopmentWednesday, April 10 Assignment / Book Review statement due before class, including title and one-paragraph explanation. Friday, April 19 Reading / Significant statements by modern developmental theorists, considered in chronological order: Darwin, Charles. “A Biographical Sketch of an Infant,” Mind 2 (1877):285-294. [CP] Freud, Sigmund. “The Sexual Life of Human Beings” in Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, trans. James Strachey, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. New York: W.W. Norton, 1966. Watson, John B. “How the Behaviorist Studies Infants and Children,” in Psychological Care of Infant and Child. New York: W.W. Norton, 1928, 11-44. Gesell, Arnold. “Growth Potency and Infant Personality” in Infancy and Human Growth. New York: Macmillan, 1928, 355-378. Clark, Kenneth B. and Mamie P Clark. “Emotional Factors in Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children,” Journal of Negro Education 19, no. 3. (Summer 1950): 341-350 Erikson, Erik. “Eight Stages of Man,” Childhood and Society. New York: W.W. Norton, 1950, 219-234. Kagan, Jerome. The Nature of the Child. New York: Basic Books, 1984, chap. 7, 240-276 (“The Role of the Family”) Ruder, Debra Bradley. "The Teen Brain," Harvard Magazine, September-October 2008, 8-10. |
Week 3 |
History: The Case of the United StatesWednesday, April 17 Friday, April 12 Reading / De Schweinitz, Rebecca. If We Could Change the World Reading and Discussion Questions for De Schweinitz, If We Could Change the World |
Week 4 |
Culture: Their Children and OursWednesday, April 24 Friday, April 26 Reading / Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa Reading and Discussion Questions for Mead, Coming of Age in Samoa |
Week 5 |
Culture: Innocence and Danger, Risks and RightsWednesday, May 1 Friday, May 3 Reading / Higonnet, Pictures of Innocence Reading and Discussion Questions for Higonnet, Pictures of Innocence |
Week 6 |
Begin 4-Week Unit on AutismThis 4-week unit has two goals: 1) to have students explore a single issue in some depth, and 2) to expose students to a major research project in the field as it evolves. I will share some of my own work with the class and, in particular, would like to involve students in making suggestions for Autism: A Digital History, a research-based digital project currently under development. Autism: The Discovery of a Clinical Syndrome and the History of a DiagnosisWednesday, May 8 Reading / Key texts on autism in rough chronological order Kanner, Leo. "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact." The Nervous Child 2 (1943): 217-250. Bettelheim, Bruno. Child Schizophrenia Symposium, 1955: "Schizophrenia as a Reaction to Extreme Situations." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 26, no. 3 (July 1956): 507-518. Friday, May 10 Rimland, Bernard. "The Etiology of Infantile Autism: The Problem of Biological Versus Psychological Causation." In Classic Readings in Autism, edited by Anne M. Donnellan. New York: Teachers College Press, 1985, 84-101. Baron-Cohen, Simon, Alan M. Leslie, and Uta Frith. "Does the Autistic Child Have a “Theory of Mind”?" Cognition 21 (1985): 37-46. Meyerding, Jane. "Thoughts on Finding Myself Differently Brained." 1998. Diagnostic criteria for autism in the DSM, from DSM-I through DSM-IV, 1952-2000 |
Week 7 |
Autism: The ExperienceWednesday, May 15 listen to Temple Grandin's TED talk Friday, May 17 Reading / Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, chapters 1-5 Listening / Autism Grows Up |
Week 8 |
Autism: The ExperienceWednesday, May 22 Friday, May 24 Reading / Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, chapters 5-11 |
Week 9 |
Autism: A Digital HistoryWednesday, May 29 Friday, May 31 |
Week 10 |
Conclusion: What does it mean to take children and childhood seriously?Wednesday, June 5 Friday, June 7 |