A few years back, I got a phone call from a second cousin I hadn't heard from in almost forty years. We caught up with family doings and talked about where life had taken us.
Then he said, "You know what I remember most about you? You had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves full of books in your bedroom -- and you had read all of them!"
I laughed as I looked around at the shelves and shelves of books in our living room and dining area -- to say nothing of the shelves in the bedrooms and the stashes of books in both bathrooms and in the car.
Not much has changed, I thought. And, yes, I've read all of them -- several of them multiple times.
Many of them are children's books.
Let me rephrase that.
Many of them feature children as protagonists. But there is nothing childish about the themes they explore nor the literary devices used in the process.
I've been teaching children in one way or another since I was twelve and writing professionally for children since 1989. In December 2006 (Class of 2007 -- so confusing!), I earned a bachelor's in creative writing from Eckerd College and, for my senior thesis, wrote the first half of a middle-grade novel featuring an 11-year-old very observant protagonist.
In August 2008, I earned a master's in community journalism from the University of Alabama. My thesis/project was a study of children's material in newspapers and the creation of a page of news written for children. After returning home and writing Insiders' Guide to the Greater Tampa Bay Area for Globe Pequot Press, I realized how much more I could accomplish with structure and deadlines than when left to my own devices.
And I realized that I wanted to delve deeply into the world of children's literature.
In order to do that locally, however, that meant enrolling in the College of Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Technically, I'm working towards a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a Concentration in Literacy Studies.
The requirements include studies in theory, theory, and more theory -- education, literacy, sociological, methodological, and more -- multiple courses in statistics and research methods, and courses in education policy, instruction, and more.
Where's the children's literature?
Well . . . that's a good question.
In one sense, children's literature is implicit in every course. After all, texts for children is what teachers teach -- although mostly that means textbooks, curricular materials, and a sliver of story.
In another sense, however, children's literature is treated as merely a tool used to build something more elaborate, a stepping stone on the way to some other, more exotic destination. Not by everyone, of course. And, perhaps, in the College of Education the focus ought to be on education and the tools of education.
But children's literature is more than a tool, and it deserves deeper study.
So -- here's to Bhaktin, multiple Chi-square regression ANCOVAs [;-)], and studies in education policy . . . if that's the kind of academic acrobatics it takes to earn a Ph.D. in children's literature.
Care to tag along?
