Childhood Studies?

During the Friday presentation from Dr. Lynne Vallone, I listened to the professor from Rutgers speak about childhood studies as an area in need of growth. She posed the question, “Where does childhood studies fit in?” It requires support from many different fields of studies and currently does not have many models of to follow for implementation. As a result it requires creative and imaginative individuals to develop a program in the schools. This is a long and taxing process that also requires patience and persistence.  Vallone suggests there is much that can be learned from existing programs in gender studies. It is imperative that the student is remembered throughout this process

With the first doctoral class about to graduate from the Department of Childhood Studies, Vallone commented on the challenges of a multidisciplinary program. As one of the Doctoral Supervisors, she mentioned feeling unprepared to help with such a wide array of doctoral theses. Therefore these students were assigned advisors from several departments to provide expertise in other disciplines. To gage the success of the program, Vallone received permission from Institutional Review Board to survey student participants. The findings demonstrated a concern that the multidisciplinary (not interdisciplinary) approach may not help them find jobs after receiving their doctorate. This is why it is so important to advance childhood studies at a national level. Vallone also described two types of individuals: child people and book people. Although it may be difficult, it is critical that the both people come to an agreement about childhood studies.

The final point of discussion was centered around Vallone’s working manuscript titled “Big and Little.” She is currently researching the influence of miniatures and gigantics. Body scale in fiction and reality has been widely used to imply value or superiority. It is also important to note the huge impact that “little” characters can have on their surroundings. Upon investigation, it is easy to find dwarfs represented as problematic throughout history. Even today there is a television show on TLC titled “Little People, Big World.” The famous performer General Tom Thumb was promoted by P.T. Barnum and has also influences American childhood. Commonly forced to mimicry, these individuals are arguably exploited by their abnormal size. Another real life example is the controversial treatment of Ota Benga. He was incarcerated in the Bronx Zoo Monkey Exhibit and demonstrated the conventions of savagery.  Fictional examples including “The Iron Giant” were also included. Typically giant women were considered grotesque. A mortally obese girl named Barbara was photographed before her death and these images were related to an ultrasound of a fetus.http://rtf.utexas.edu/news/media-studies/lynne-vallone-rutgers-talks-doing-childhood-studies