Did childhood exist in the past, or is it a modern invention? Are childhood (and children) and adolescence (and adolescents), as we have known them, and as some claim, disappearing? Are they biological or "natural" and universal stages of human development, or at least in part the products of society and culture and history? Do childhood and children have a future? How different from today was growing up in the past? How did the young mature in past times, and what relationships to current patterns does that past have?

This course asks a number of important questions about the changing experiences and meanings of growing up--childhood, adolescence, youth, "coming of age." In contrast to most contemporary views, it looks seriously at the past, at the history of growing up, as a comparison to the present and as the specific context from which today's patterns and problems developed. History thus provides a rich laboratory in which current notions about growing up--for example, from psychology, anthropology, sociology, human developmental studies, and related areas--may be explored and tested. The relevance, usefulness, and accuracy of theories that relate to growing up will be examined in historical context and probed over a broad expanse of time.

A wide variety of evidence, including films and novels and memoirs, and a number of different research traditions and approaches are considered. In addition, we will evaluate family, child, and youth policy as it has developed over time, and its functions today, and as it provides options for tomorrow. A new, broad, rich, and interdisciplinary understanding of growing up and its challenges is the course goal.

THIS COURSE COUNTS FOR THE ETHICS REQUIREMENT AND ALSO FOR CREDIT TOWARD THE MAJOR FOR HISTORICAL STUDIES STUDENTS

Requirements:

1. Regular attendance, preparation, and participation
2. 3 1-2-page "reaction\evaluation" papers at regular intervals during the semester, each 3-4 weeks, responding to required reading, films, etc. Due: first week in February, March, and April
3. 3. Participation in a group research project and brief class oral presentation: giving historical, theoretical, and policy context and perspective to a contemporary question or problem; presentations during final 3-4 weeks of course
4. 10-page paper: using course ideas and materials to interpret primary sources on growing up, selected from either materials on students' own families (with source materials including at least 2-3 generations), or from Eve Merriam, ed., Growing Up Female in America: Ten Lives; Chris Mayfield, ed., Growing Up Southern; or Hamilton Holt, ed., The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves (detailed information provided in class). Due at final class meeting

• Harvey J. Graff, ed., Growing Up in America: Historical Experiences. Wayne State University Press, 1987
• J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. [1951]
• W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson, Broken Promises: How Americans Fail Their Children. Univ. of Chicago Press, 1988 [1982]
• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life. . . an American Slave. New American Library, 1968 [1845] OR
• Lucy Larcom, A New England Girlhood. Northeastern U.P., 1986 [1889]
• Edward Eggleston, The Hoosier Schoolmaster. Indiana U.P., 1984 [1871] OR
• Stephen Crane, Maggie, A Girl of the Streets. Fawcett, 1960 [1893]
• Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers. Persea, 1975 [1925] OR
• Kate Simon, Bronx Primitive. Harper and Row, 1982
• Richard Wright, Black Boy. Perennial Classic, 1966 [1937] OR
• E.L. Doctorow, World's Fair. Random House, 1985

• Eve Merriam, ed., Growing Up in Female in America: Ten Lives. Beacon, 1987 [1971]
• Chris Mayfield, ed., Growing Up Southern: Southern Exposure Looks at Childhood Then and Now. Pantheon, 1981 [This book is out of print; copies are available at used book stores]
• Hamilton Holt, ed., The Life Stories of Undistinguished Americans as Told by Themselves, ed. Werner Sollers. Routledge, 1990 [1906]

• Harvey J. Graff, Conflicting Paths: Growing Up in America (Harvard U.P., 1995)
• Growing Up in America: Past, Present, Future

Syllabus

• Reading: Graff, ed., Growing Up in America [GUA], Part I readings, 1-4
• Film: "Lord of the Flies" (90)

• Reading: Keith Thomas, "Children in Early Modern England," in Children and Their Books, ed. Gillian Avery and Julia Briggs (Oxford Univ. Press, 1989), 45-77 [Library reserve]
• Film: "The Return of Martin Guerre" (111)

• Reading: GUA, 5, 6, 7

• Reading: GUA, 8, 9, 10
• Film: "The Wild Child" (85)

• Reading: GUA, 11, 12, 13; and choose from: Frederick Douglass, Autobiography or Lucy Larcom, A New England Girlhood Films from the American Social History Project: "Daughters of Free Men," "The Five Points," "Doing All They Can" (75)

• Reading: GUA, 14, 15, 16, 17; Douglass and/or Larcom
• Film: "The Molders of Troy" (90)

• Reading: Edward Eggleston, The Hoosier Schoolmaster OR
  Stephen Crane, Maggie, Girl of the Streets
• Slides from Canada's Visual Past series

• Reading: GUA, 18-24 [for two weeks]

• Reading: GUA, 18-24 [for two weeks]
  Anzia Yezierska, The Bread Givers OR
  Kate Simon, Bronx Primitive
• Film: "My Brilliant Career" (101)

• Reading: GUA, 25-31 [for next two weeks]
• choose: Richard Wright, Black Boy OR
  E.L. Doctorow, World's Fair Film: "Rebel Without a Cause" (111)

• Reading: GUA, 25-31 [two weeks]
• J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
• Film: "High School" (75)

• Film: "Street Wise" (92)

• Reading: GUA, 31-33

• Reading: W. Norton Grubb and Marvin Lazerson, Broken Promises: How Americans Fail Their Children, esp. Part I
• Optional: Andrew J. Cherlin, ed., The Changing American Family and Public Policy (Urban Institute, 1988 [Library reserve]
• Film: "Heathers" (102)
• FINAL ESSAYS DUE AT CLASS TIME