History 397U:
History of Youth in America
University
of Massachusetts
Spring
2007
T,
Th 1:00-2:15
209
Herter Hall
635 Herter Hall
545-6778
Office Hours: W 2-3, T 2:30-3:30 and by appointment
Course Description: This course will explore the history of childhood
and youth from the late nineteenth century to the present. We will
examine the changing experiences of childhood and youth especially in light of
industrialization, the rise of consumerism, and changes in the educational
system. Special consideration will be given to youth movements and the
role of children and youth in the civil rights movement and other forms of
political activity. Reading will be drawn from primary and secondary
sources. Student evaluation will be based upon participation and several
short papers.
Texts: (Books are available at Amherst Books, 8 Main Street, Amherst, MA 01002, 413.256.1547)
¥
Joe Austin and Michael Willard, Eds., Generations of Youth: Youth
Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America: Youth Cultures and History
in Twentieth-Century America (New
York, NY: NYU Press, 1998).
¥ Horatio Alger , Ragged Dick:
Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks (New York, NY: Signet Classics, 2005). Also available
online.
¥ Ellen Levine, Freedom's
Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories (New York, NY: Puffin, 2000).
Course Website: http://webct.oit.umass.edu
Evaluation:
Participation 20%
Short Writing Assignments 20%
Newspaper Assignment 5%
Papers 15%
each
Horatio Alger and Child Reform
Children's Voices in the Civil Rights Movement
Research Paper 25%
On
approved topics
Participation:
Your participation grade has three components: (1) Attendance, (2) Contribution to class discussion, and (3) WebCT discussion participation. You are expected to attend every class meeting, to be prepared, and to contribute to our discussion. Each week you will be asked to respond to a reading question on the WebCT discussion pages for your section. Questions will be posted on WebCT in advance. Your responses will be due by Wednesday at 9pm. Your responses should demonstrate that you have read and thought about the class material. If you cannot post your response, you may bring a one page response paper to section in its place. Each response will be graded on a two point scale: depending on the quality of your response, you will receive two points, one point, or no points.
Newspaper Assignment:
As part of this class, you will be asked to skim a newspaper for articles relevant to childhood and youth. It is your responsibility to bring an article to class and be prepared to present it by describing its content, its historical precedents, and its consequences or implications. Your presentation should be no more than five minutes in length and should foster class discussion. You will be required to present one article before Spring Break and one article after Spring Break. Bring in something that interests you and is relevant to our class in some way.
The University
Grade Scale will be followed:
A = 93 and above;
A- = 92-90; B+ = 89-88; B = 83-87; B- = 82-80; C+=79-78; C = 73-77; C- = 72-70;
D+ = 69-69; D = 60-67; F = 59 and below.
Numerous problems are lurking
out there to help you miss assignment deadlines. Computer failures, family crises, and misreading the
syllabus will all send you scrambling to complete work on time. Please plan ahead and be ready to work
around such problems where possible.
Papers are due at the beginning of class. Late papers will be docked one third of a letter grade for
every day they are late.
Plagiarism is a serious
violation of expected academic conduct.
Your work must be your own.
If you quote or paraphrase work from someone else, you must give credit
and provide a reference for that source.
Links to guidelines on plagiarism, including the official policy on
academic honesty, can be found on the following webpage: http://www.umass.edu/history/links_writing.html. The penalty for plagiarism in this
class is zero credit for the assignment in question.
If you have a documented
disability that may affect your performance in the class, please speak to me as
soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be made.
Lecture Schedule (Subject to Change): Please read & prepare the
materials assigned before the class meets.
Defining Childhood and
Youth
Should youth be defined in
terms of social role or in terms of age?
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Wayside Introductory," from Tanglewood
Tales (1853)
http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/tt.html
Begin Reading Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick: Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks
Week 2 Children's
Experiences in the Nineteenth Century
(2/6-2/8)
Reading:
Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick: Or, Street Life in New
York with the Boot Blacks
Lewis Hine Photograph
Collection on Massachusetts for the National Child Labor Committee
http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/specoll/digitcoll.php
NOTE: We will
be reading the Hine photographs FROM the perspectives of the subjects, rather
than the photographer. This article will help you think about ways to visually
reinterpret HinesÕ work.
See James
Curtis, "Making Sense of Documentary Photography," History
Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/Photos/, June 2003.
Week 3 Child
Saving in the Progressive Era
(2/13-2/15)
Reading:
Child Welfare Exhibit Posters (WebCT)
Mary
van Kleek, "Child Labor in New York City Tenements,"Charities and the
Commons 18 January 18, 1908
http://tenant.net/Community/LES/kleeck9.html
Margaret Jacobs, "Maternal
Colonialism: White Women and Indigenous Child Removal in the American West
and Australia, 1880-1940," Western Historical Quarterly 36 (2005), 453-476.
Victoria Getis, "Experts
and Juvenile Delinquency, 1900-1935" In Generations of Youth
Mary Odem, "Teenage Girls,
Sexuality, and Working-Class parents in Early Twentieth Century California" In Generations
of Youth
Alger Paper Due
Reading:
Alexandra Stern, "Beauty is
not always better: Perfect babies the tyranny of pediatric norms," Patterns
of Prejudice 36 (2002) 68-78.
Peter N.
Stearns, "All are Above Average: Children
at School" in Anxious Parents: A History of Modern Childrearing in America (New York: NYU Press, 2003), 81-124.
Reading:
Jay Mechling," Heroism and
the Problem of Impulsiveness for Early Twentieth Century American Youth" In Generations
of Youth
John Bloom, "Rolling With the
Punches: Boxing, Youth Culture, and Ethnic Identity at Federal Indian Boarding
Schools During the 1930s" In Generations of Youth
Georganne
Scheiner, "The Deanna Durbin Devotees: Fan Clubs and Spectatorship" In Generations
of Youth
Paula Fass, "Creating New Identities: Youth And
Ethnicity in New York City High Schools in the 1930s and 1940s" In Generations
of Youth
Reading:
Music Assignment (WebCT)
Frank Baraja, "The Fifth Column of Sleepy Lagoon: A Convergent Struggle Against Fascism, 1942-1944," Aztlan 31 (2006) 33-62.
Matt Garcia,
"Memories of El Monte": Intercultural Dance Halls in Post-World War II Greater
Los Angeles" In Generations of Youth
Read the histories of the Children's Bureau posted on the government websites below. How do these histories allow us to understand the ways in which children have been used to shape public policy? Why the different narratives on these two sites?
Reading:
Social Security Narratives, including Brief and Extended History of the Children's Bureau
http://www.ssa.gov/history/childb1.html
Health and Human Services History Narrative: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/
Paula Fass, "Children in
Global Migrations," Journal of Social History 38.4 (2005) 937-953.
William Wei,"Hmong American
Youth: American Dreams, American Nightmare" in Generations of Youth
Imagine that you were working
for the Children's Bureau today
Historic
New York Times Database
Online Collection at UMass
Week 9 Children's
Voices in the Civil Rights Movement (3/13-3/15)
Reading:
Robin D.
G. Kelley, "The Riddle of the Zoot: Malcolm Little and Black Cultural Politics
during World War II" In Generations of Youth
Ellen Levine, Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories
Week 10 Countercultures
and Social Movements (4/3-4/5)
Reading:
Port Huron Statement of the
Students for a Democratic Society, 1962
http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/huron.html
Beth
Bailey, "From Panty Raids to Revolution: Youth and Authority, 1950-1970" In Generations
of Youth
Jeffrey Rangel, "Art and
Activism in the Chicano Movement: Judith F. Baca, Youth and the Politics of
Cultural Work" In Generations of Youth
Judy Baca and the Great Wall
of Los Angeles Project
http://www.sparcmurals.org:16080/sparcone/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20&Itemid=52
Judy Baca's Art
T
4/10 Class Conference 1-2:30
Readings and Topics to be
determined by collective action.
T 4/17 No Class, Monday
Schedule
Th 4/19 Civil Rights Paper Due
5/15 Research Paper Due
Q: How do I logon to MyWebCT?
A: Logging in to your WebCT course is very
easy. The following will step you through the process.
1. Login
to your Internet Service Provider (more than likely UMass)
2. Start INTERNET EXPLORER
3. Either
go up to the Address Box or go to File/Open. Type in the UMass WebCT courses
URL which is https://webct.oit.umass.edu/
4. Click
on the link on the right that says myWebCT.
5. Type
in your WebCT ID and Password. Be careful to type in the information correctly.
WebCT is case sensitive, which means that lower or upper case does matter. Your
WebCT ID will be the same as your NetID and will always be all lower case.
If your e-mail
address is johndoe@student.umass.edu, your NetID will be johndoe. Your
password, again, is the same as your UMAccess password.
You must have an active account for your enrollment in
any registered course that is using WebCT. If you do not have an active account
you will not be enrolled in the WebCT component of your course until you have
activated your account.