GROWING UP IN THE 21ST CENTURY
SYLLABUS
FALL QUARTER, 2000
Faculty:Stephanie Coontz
3117 Seminar Bldg.
866-6703
Meeting Times:
Tuesday, 11-2:30 -- Seminar, Lib 22043:30-5:30 -- Lecture or Workshop, Lib 2204
Wednesday, 10-1 - Workshops, Lib 2204
Thursday, 11-2:30 Seminar, Lib 2204
3:30-5:30 Field Research Workshop, Lib 3402
This two-quarter program explores the origins and complexities of contemporary issues associated with reaching adulthood and/or raising children in American society. First quarter we will develop a theoretical and historical background for understanding these issues, beginning with some cross-cultural studies of childhood, then tracing the American experience from colonial times until the end of the nineteenth century. Second quarter we will explore the changes that occurred in the 20th century, leading to the current status of children and of parents. We will then discuss contemporary dilemmas and policy debates. Program activities include seminars, lectures, a variety of writing assignments, and 6-8 hours a week field research as a participant-observer in the local schools. You should keep a journal of observations to be turned in at the end of the quarter and to draw from in our weekly field workshop discussion sessions.
We are going to have a lot of fun in this program, but it will be intense, hard work. Reading and writing demands will be heavy, and I expect students to be well-prepared for class and to participate in all seminar discussions. If you must be absent for any reason, please turn in a detailed discussion of the points you would have raised in class. The writing assignments are explained at the end of the syllabus. The syllabus lists the readings that will be discussed at each seminar. Lectures and workshops will be announced on a weekly basis.
I. Week One, Sept, 25-29 -- Introduction to the Study of Childhood
Tuesday: Class introduction; brainstorm contemporary youth issues and form small presentation groups; discuss syllabus; individual meetings about writing issues and admission to class.
Wednesday: Arrange school schedules; individual meetings, continued.
Thursday: Seminar on Cosaro, The Sociology of Childhood, pp. 1-67 and Hawes and Hiner, Children in Historical and Comparative Perspective, chapters 1-5 (on reserve in library). Weekly summary due (see writing assignments section of syllabus, below). Library orientation to finding reviews.
II. Week Two, October 2-6 -- Contemporary Issues: The Problems
with Not Knowing History
Tuesday: Small groups meet to research presentations for Thursday. In preparation for your research, read Cosaro, Sociology of Childhood, pp. 193-206, and Robert Levine and Merry White, "The Social Transformation of Childhood" (on reserve). Be sure and include these in your summary paper for the week.
Wednesday: small meetings, field work.
Thursday: Presentations on contemporary issues; seminar on Harvey Graff, Conflicting Paths, pp. 1-25, along with the readings you did for Tuesday. Paper due. Lecture on myths about past families.
III. Week Three, Oct. 9-13 -- Colonial and Republican Childhood
Tuesday: Seminar on D'Emilio and Freedman, Intimate Matters, pp. xi- 52; Gragg, Conflicting Paths, pp. 26-66; and John Modell and Madeline Goodman, "Historical Perspectives," in At the Threshold: The Developing Adolescent (on reserve). Turn in your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for book review papers.
Wednesdays -- week three through 9, each Wed will be devoted to field research and sometimes individual conferences.
Thursday: Seminar on Mary Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, pp. 1- 59. Commit to your book critique projects today. Turn in paper.
IV. Week Four, Oct. 16-19 -- Families and Children in an Emerging
Market Society
Tuesday: Seminar on Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class, pp. 60-144.
Thursday: Seminar on Ryan, pp. 145-249.
V. Week Five, Oct. 23-27 -- Children in the 19th Century
Tuesday: Seminar on Ryan, pp. 230-42; Jacqueline Reiner, From Virtue to Character, pp. 125-50 (on reserve); and Graff, Conflicting Paths, pp. 67-185.
Thursday: Seminar on Intimate Matters, pp. 55-167.
VI. Week Six, Oct. 30-Nov. 3 -- Children in the 19th Century,
cont'd
Tuesday, October 31: Paper due. Seminar on James Marten, chapters 1, 4, and 6 plus pp. 185-6.
The Children's Civil War,
Thursday, November 2: Research day to finish reading for book review project.
VII. Week Seven, Nov. 6-10
Tuesday: Seminar on Graff, Conflicting Paths, pp. 181-301.
Thursday, November 9: Research day to turn in first teacher-ready (not rough) draft of critical book review, due in my office Monday, November 13, by 9 am. (If you can't get there that early, turn the paper in on Friday before my secretary leaves for the day.)
VIll. Week Eight, Nov. 13-17 -- Children in the Late 19th Century
Tuesday: Seminar on Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer
Thursday: Seminar on Intimate Matters, pp. 171-235, and Graff, Conflicting Paths, pp. 302-327. Papers returned with comments.
IX. Thanksgiving Vacation, November 20-24
X. Week Nine, Nov. 27-Dec. I -- Children at the Dawn of the 20th Century
Tuesday: Seminar on Gene Stratton Porter, Girl of the Limberlost
Thursday: Seminar on Graff, Conflicting Paths, pp. 328-427; Intimate Matters, pp. 239-74; and Cosaro, Sociology of Childhood, pp. 69-89.
XI. Week Ten, Dec. 4-8 -- Student Presentations. Please note expanded class hours and make sure that you attend other student reports, not - just your own!
Tuesday: 10-noon, 1-3, 3:30-5:30
Wednesday: 9-11, 11:30-1
Thursday: 10-noon, 1-3, 3:30-5:30
Friday, December 8: Turn in final paper and documents from your field research to my office by noon.
Writing Assignments:
For the first three weeks, students will turn in a summary of the full range of each week's reading, recapitulating the main arguments, claims, and conclusions of each. Think of these as briefing papers that would explain the main points and the significance of each piece, succinctly but with precision and accuracy, to someone who hadn't read the material. If you wish to add a few paragraphs giving your assessment of the arguments or presenting your own opinion, I'd be interesting in reading that, but the point of these papers is to ensure that you can make a clear distinction between what an author thinks and what you think. The summary should be acceptable to the author, even if you disagree with him or her.
Each of these papers is due Thursday at the beginning of seminar. No late papers will be accepted except under the most extreme circumstances, such as an illness confirmed by a doctors note. If you must be absent for personal reasons, please turn the paper in early or have a friend deliver it to class. Each missing or unexcused late paper will result in a loss of two credits.
If you are able to do these summary papers in a satisfactory manner, you may stop doing them during week 4, and you will have a more analytical, thesis-driven paper due week 6, on Tuesday, October 31, analyzing the main changes you see in the experience of being or raising a child from colonial times up through the Civil War. The same rule on late papers applies and if this paper is not turned in you will lose 3 credits. (Students who need more work identifying authors' central arguments will continue to turn in weekly papers and receive individual tutoring until I am convinced they have learned this essential skill.)
Finally, all students will prepare a critical book review, 10-20 pages, of 2-3 books, chosen from a list that will be passed out in class. We will discuss the format for this later, but a good model would be the extended book review essays found in the New York Review of Books. You will also give a short presentation based on your paper at the end of the quarter. I am excited about this system because if everyone does a thorough job, you will all be exposed to the main arguments and findings of a wide range of authors that we do not all have time to read. You will help yourself and your classmates by clearly explaining the main arguments and conclusions of the books under review, then analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, along with their contribution to our understanding of childhood or parenthood, past and present.
Please peruse the list and select three possible combinations, listed in order of your preference. I am not allowing substitutions or duplications because these are the crucial books that policy-makers, social workers, family experts, and/or graduate programs will be expected to know, and I want everyone to be exposed to the basic arguments of each.
There are three components to this final writing project. First, after reading the books and looking up other reviews (which you will copy and attach to your paper), you will write a first draft (do not confuse this with a rough draft) that is due in my office by Monday, November 13 at 9 am. One credit will be deducted for a missing paper, but if you don't do it the penalty will in fact be higher because you won't have any feedback to work off for your final draft.
Second, as you revise your paper, you will also work on a 15 minute oral summary of the paper, due week 10, the date and time to be established by lot, so you must be ready to go by Tuesday. Failure to give a presentation will result in one unit of credit being deducted.
Finally, your rewritten paper will be due in my office, with another paper placed on reserve for other interested students, by Friday, December 7, at 9 a.m.