TY - JOUR AU - Wright, Rosemary PY - 2010/04/26 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - CHILDREN AND SOCIETY JF - TRAILS: Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology JA - TRAILS VL - IS - SE - DO - UR - https://trails.asanet.org/article/view/children-and-society SP - AB - Children.... The word brings up thoughts of our own childhood, of children we've known, of children we've seen on television and in the movies. This course goes beyond our own experience to explore what it means to be a child in the United States today. While many of those meanings are fun and uplifting, others are sad and problematic. We will go back and forth in these two directions, trying to weigh their relative social significance. A special focus is children's culture and how it is created, both by and for children. While we'll be watching Disney movies and going to McDonald's, we'll also be debating the welfare of poor and abused children. We'll ask what it takes to overcome the negative influences to be able to participate in the positive cultural elements. The relative influence of gender, race, and social class will be debated throughout. As a special project each student will observe children through the lens of the course on a topic of their choice, sharing their findings with the class. ER -