Unit One:
Introduction

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CCR = Children's Culture Reader
B/MK = From Barbie to Mortal Kombat

II. Thursday January 6

General Issues

Read:

III. Tuesday January 11

The Developing Child

Read:

• Jean Piaget, "Transition from Sensory-Motor Schemas to Conceptual Schemas"
• Lev Vygotsky, "Tool and Symbol in Child Development"
• Jean Briggs, "Conflict Management and Socialization among Canadian Inuit"
• optional: Erik Erikson, "Toys and Reason"

IV. Thursday January 13

The Historical Evolution of Childhood

• Phillippe Aries, "From Immodesty to Innocence" CCR
• Viviana A. Zelizer, "From Useful to Useless: Moral Conflict Over Child Labor" CCR

V. Tuesday January 18

Children in Cross-Cultural Perspective

• Joseph Tobin, David Wu and Dana Davidson, Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States
• (optional) Barbara Rogoff, Mary Gauvain and Shari Ellis, "Development Viewed in its Cultural Context"

Unit Two:
Play and Fantasy

VI. Thursday January 20
The Commercialization of Children's Culture

• Heather Hendershot, "Action For (and Against) Children's Television"
• Ellen Seiter, "Children's Desires/Mother's Dilemmas" CCR
• Gene Del Vecchio, "Touch the Boys Psyche" and "Touch The Girls Psyche"

Observation Assignment due

class notes on observation

VII. Tuesday January 25
Play and Reality

• D.W. Winnicott, "Playing: A Theoretical Statement"
• Gregory Bateson, "A Theory of Play and Fantasy"
• Phillippe Aries, "A Modest Contribution to the History of Games and Pastimes"
• (optional) Jean Piaget, "The Beginnings of Play"

Rob Walker, "Risky Business"
Jon Gertner, "Hey, Mom, Is It O.K. If These Guys Market Stuff to Us?"
Benedict Carey, "Babes in a Grown-up Toyland"

Lab: Talk about paper topics

Unit Three:
Stories for and by Children

• Carolyn Steedman, "The Tidy House" CCR
• Peggy Miller, et al., "Narrative Practices and the Social Construction of Self in Childhood"
• Kimiko Ryokai, Catherine Vaucelle and Justine Cassell, "Virtual Peers as Partners in Storytelling and Literacy Learning"

IX. Tuesday February 1

From Folk Tales to Children's Literature

• Robert Darnton, "Peasants Tell Tales"
• Bettelheim, "Uses of Enchantment" + Grimm's "Hansel and Gretel" and "Snow White"

X. Thursday February 3

Present Artifacts

Student Presentations:

• The Alliance for Childhood, "Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers in Childhood"
• Sherry Turkle, "Cyborg Babies and Cy-doug-plasm: Ideas about self and life in the culutre of simulation"
• Kaiser Family Foundation, "Kids and Media at the new Millennium" and charts
• (optional) Ellen Wartella and Nancy Jennings, "Children and Computers: New Technology-Old Concerns"

Lab: Web Sites For Kids

XII. Thursday February 10

Children as Technologists

• Seymour Papert and Gaston Caperton, "Vision for Education: The Caperton-Papert Platform"
• Justine Cassell, "Genderizing HCI"
• Yasmin B. Kafai, "Video Game Designs By Boys and Girls: Variability and Consistency of Gender Differences" B/MK

XIII. Tuesday February 15
Children Online

(Guest Speaker!)

• Jon Katz, "The Rights of Children"
• Don Tapscott, "The N-Gen Mind"
• Amy Bruckman, "Community Support for Construction"
• Justine Cassell, "'We Have These Rules Inside': The Effects of Exercising Voice in a Children's Online Forum"

girl games

(Barbie Fashion Designer, Purple Moon)

artifact proposal due

XIV. Thursday February 17

The Girl Game Movement

• Justine Cassell and Henry Jenkins, "Chess for Girls?" B/MK
• Interview with Brenda Laurel B/MK
• "Voices from the Combat Zone: Game Grrlz Talk Back" B/MK
• Henry Jenkins, "From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Further Reflections"

• Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (essays 2 and 3)
• Henry Jenkins, "The Senuous Child: Benjamin Spock and the Sexual Revolution" CCR

Lab: Barbie Liberation Organization & Twist Barbie

GI Joe Convention video

Karen Carpenter video

XVI. Thursday February 24

Gender in political context

(guest speaker!)

• Jason Pribilsky, "Nervios and Modern Childhood"
• Lawrence Kohlberg, "Moral Stages and Moralization: The Cognitive-Developmental Approach" (Chapter 2)
• Lawrence Kohlberg, "The Six Stages of Justice Judgement" (Appendix A)
• (optional) Carol Gilligan, "Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle"

XVII. Tuesday March 1

Case Study of Barbie

(guest speaker!)

• Erica Rand, "Older Heads on Younger Bodies" CCR
• Nancie Martin interview B/MK
• Albert Magro, "Why Barbie is Perceived as Beautiful"
• Lynn Spigel, "Barbies Without Ken: Femininity, Feminism and the Art-Culture System"

Lab: La Vie en Rose

XVIII. Thursday March 3

Gender and Non-Conformity

• Eve Sedgewick, "How to Bring Your Kids Up Gay" CCR
• Barrie Thorne, "Boys and Girls Together... But Mostly Apart" CCR
• David Sedaris, "I Like Guys" (listen to this essay in the episode)

• Joanne Cantor, "'But It's Only Make Believe': Fantasy, Fiction and Fear"
• Gerald Jones, "Vampire Slayers"

Presentations of Final Projects

Chicago Tribune article

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