Syllabus Lecture Outlines Papers and Assignments Resources
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Growing up in North America

AS/HIST 1080 2005-2006

Prof. Molly Ladd-Taylor

Office:

2136 Vari Hall

Tel:

736-5123 x30419

Email:

mltaylor@yorku.ca

Office Hours:

Wed. 1:00-2:00
Th. 10:30-11:30or by appt.

What is childhood? How has it changed over time? This course examines what it meant to be young in different times and places in the United States and Canada – and provides an historical perspective on what is often seen as a ‘natural’ developmental stage. We will ask how gender, race, class, religion, and ability have affected children’s experiences and concepts of childhood, and how children and childhood have influenced adults. The course also provides an introduction to critical skills in research, writing, and historical analysis.

Readings
The assigned readings are on reserve at Scott Library and available for purchase at the York University Bookstore:

  • Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick
  • Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
  • Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Kansas Charley
  • Beth Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat
  • History 1080 Course Kit (2 volumes)

Please note that two reading assignments (for Nov. 18 and Dec. 2) can only be accessed online (at the URLs below). Ragged Dick can be purchased at the bookstore or read online at: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/AlgRagg.html .

Course Requirements

  • regular attendance at lectures and tutorials;
  • reading of the assigned materials on time;
  • active participation in tutorials (including discussions, quizzes, and tutorial writing assignments);
  • midterm exam;
  • final exam; and
  • four papers (plus a mandatory re-write).

Three short 3-5 page papers are due during the first term. A 10-page research essay is due during the second term. All written work must be original, and your notes and rough drafts must be turned in with every essay. Late papers will be penalized; however, no work will be failed for late submission alone.

The final grade will be determined by

Tutorial participation

20%

First paper

5%

Article critique (including mandatory rewrite)

10%

Primary source analysis

10%

Midterm exam

15%

Second-term research paper

20%

Final exam

20%

 

Please note

Tutorial Participation: Regular attendance and participation in tutorials are essential to your success in, and enjoyment of, this course. In tutorial you can discuss your ideas, improve academic skills, make friends, and gain important information about papers and exams. You will get a lot more out of the course – and a better mark – if you are well prepared for tutorials and contribute constructively to class discussions. Tutorial grades (10 percent each term) will be based on attendance; participation in whole-class and small-group discussions; and short homework and in-class writing assignments (including quizzes). Unexcused absence from seven (7) tutorials during the year will result in a tutorial mark of 0.

Please remember that it is disruptive to arrive late or leave class early, and it is rude to talk or write notes while the instructor or another student is speaking. All electronic devices, including cell phones, must be turned off.

Papers and Deadlines: The first paper, due September 23, is a 3-page essay that asks you to discuss your own childhood or cultural background in relation to an issue raised in the reading. The second essay, a 3-5 page article critique, is due October 21; a mandatory re-write of this paper is due November 4. The final fall-term paper, a 3-5 page analysis of a photograph by Lewis Hine, is due December 2. A longer (10 page) research essay, based on oral history or another type of primary source, is due in March. Your paper topic and preliminary bibliography are due January 27. The essay itself (with your notes and rough drafts) is due March 24. You will receive more specific information about the paper assignments (including how to prepare footnotes) in tutorial. Late work will be penalized, so please note these due dates on your calendar.

Academic Honesty: All papers must be original and use appropriate methods of citation. Photocopied papers will not be accepted under any circumstances, and your notes and rough drafts must be turned in along with every essay. Violations of the York Senate Policy on Academic Honesty – including submitting work written by someone else or submitted in another course, failing to use quotation marks and citations when using or paraphrasing the printed or electronically-transmitted work of others, collaborating on written assignments, cheating during examinations, and aiding or abetting academic misconduct – will be treated severely. Recent penalties have included failure on the assignment, failure in the course, suspension from the University, and withholding or rescinding a York degree. For further information, see http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/legislation/senate/acadhone.htm.

 

Important Deadlines for Fall/Winter Courses:

  • The last day to enrol in this course without permission of the instructor is September 22.
  • The last day to enrol with permission of the instructor is October 21.
  • The last day to drop this course without receiving a grade is February 3.

Schedule of Topics & Assignments

Sept. 9:

 

Introduction: Childhood and History

 

Sept. 16:
Tutorial:

 

Childhood in Pre-Industrial Societies
Philippe Ariès, Centuries of Childhood, 9-11
Peter Moogk, “Les Petits Sauvages”
Philip Greven, “Breaking Wills”

Sept. 23:
Tutorial:

 

Childrearing in the Early American Republic
Victoria Bissell Brown and Timothy Shannon, “Family Values”
FIRST PAPER DUE!!

 

Sept. 30:
Tutorial:

 

Gender and the Middle-Class Child
Jane Hunter, “Daughters’ Lives and the Work of the Middle-Class Home”
Anthony Rotundo, “Boy Culture”

 

Oct. 7:
Tutorial:

 

Working-Class Childhood
Bettina Bradbury, “Fragmented Family”
Christine Stansell, “Women, Children, and the Uses of the Streets

 

Oct. 14:
Tutorial:

 

Stolen Childhood: Slavery and War
James Pennington, “The Fugitive Blacksmith” (1849)
Harriet Jacobs, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” (1861)
James Marten, “War Ain’t Nuthin’ but Hell”

Oct. 21:
Tutorial:

 

Children Reading, Reading Children
Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick (orig. 1868)
ARTICLE CRITIQUE DUE!!

Oct. 28:
Tutorial:

 

Redeeming Children: Orphan Trains
Joan Jacobs Brumberg, Kansas Charley, 1-103

 

Nov. 4:
Tutorial:

 

Redeeming Children: Child Emigration to Canada
Brumberg, Kansas Charley, 104-154
RE-WRITE DUE !!

Nov. 11:
Tutorial:

 

“Bad” Beyond Redemption? Criminals and “Defectives”
Brumberg, Kansas Charley, 155-end

 

Nov. 18:
Tutorial:

 

Child Labour at the Turn of the Century
Viviana Zeliser, “From Useful to Useless”
Robert McIntosh, “The Boys in the Nova Scotian Coal Mines”
The History Place, “Child Labor in America: Photographs of Lewis W. Hine”
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/

Nov. 25:
Tutorial:

 

Children in School I
Harro Van Brummelen, “Shifting Perspectives”
The McGuffey Readers (1879), selections


Dec. 2:
Tutorial:

 

Children in School II: Native Residential Schools
Jean Barman, “Schooled for Inequality”
Zitkala-Sa, “The School Days of an Indian Girl” (1900)
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr/19cUSWW/ZS/SDIG.html
PHOTOGRAPH ANALYSIS DUE !!

DECEMBER EXAM DATE TBA – GOOD LUCK! -- HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!

 

Jan. 6:
Tutorial:

 

Immigrant Children
Selma Berrol, “Immigrant Children at School”
Vicki Ruiz, “Star Struck”
Sadie Frowne, “The Story of a Sweatshop Girl” (1902)

 

Jan. 13:
Tutorial:

 

The Nature and Nurture of Children’s Bodies
Peter Stearns, “Children’s Sleep”
Mona Gleason, “Embodied Negotiations”

 

Jan. 20:
Tutorial:

 

Adolescence, Psychology, and Intergenerational Conflict
Tamara Myers, “Qui t’a débauchée?”
Jane Addams, Spirit of Youth and City Streets (1909), chap. 2

 

Jan. 27:
Tutorial:

 

School Life and Popular Culture in the Interwar Years
Cynthia Commachio, “Inventing the Extracurriculum”
Robert and Helen Lynd, “School Life” in Middletown (1929)
PAPER PROPOSAL DUE !!

 

Feb. 3:
Tutorial:

 

Depression and War: the Child’s View
Robert Cohen, Dear Mrs. Roosevelt, excerpts
Charles Johnston, “The Children’s War”
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Farewell to Manzanar, excerpt

 

Feb. 10:
Tutorial:

 

Childhood as Spectacle: the Dionne Quints and Shirley Temple
begin reading Beth Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat, 1-76

 

Feb. 17:

 

Reading Week – No Class

 

Feb. 24:
Tutorial:

 

Youth Culture and Institutions at Mid-Century
Bailey, From Front Porch to Back Seat, 77-143.

 

March 3:
Tutorial:

 

Child Protection, Children’s Rights: Children and the State
Declarations of the Rights of the Child, 1924 & 1959
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/childrights.html
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/k1drc.htm
Dominique Marshall, “Reconstruction Politics”


March 10:
Tutorial:

 

Racism, Resistance and the Child
Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

 

March 17:
Tutorial:

 

Growing Up in the Postwar Years
Doug Owram, “Consuming Leisure”
Allan Bérubé with Florence Bérubé, “Sunset Trailer Park”

 

March 24:
Tutorial:

 

Youth Culture in the 1960s
Doug Owram, “Rise of the Counterculture”
Connie Dvorkin, “The Suburban Scene”
FINAL PAPER DUE !!


March 31:
Tutorial:

 

Summing Up: The Past, Present, and Future of Childhood
Neil Postman, “The Disappearing Child”
George Lipsitz, “We Know What Time It Is”
Alissa Quart, “Branded”