{"id":1342,"date":"2026-02-03T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/?p=1342"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:58:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:58:33","slug":"childish-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shcydigitalchildhoods.org\/dir\/childish-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"Childish Professor – Exploring the History of Children’s History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Read in today’s post about The Childish Professor<\/a>, a new public history project by Dr. Holly N.S. White that helps make the exciting history of childhood more accessible to students, educators, and more! <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At William & Mary, I teach a first-year required course that asks students to consider a series of \u201cbig picture questions\u201d relevant to the modern day which I frame through the history of childhood. We consider what it means to be a child today, what it meant to be a child in the past, and whether the label of child is\/was about protection or about control. We also explore how children are engaged as consumers of history. So, in addition to reading scholarship and looking at primary sources, my students play elementary-aged games like iCivics<\/a> and read books by American Girl Doll<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the questions that frame the class have always intrigued me, so much so that I\u2019ve built my entire career around them. But, as academics, we\u2019re often trained to engage with a limited audience who shares our own research interests. When, and if, we teach, it\u2019s usually to history majors or at least those interested in history. However, most of my students are non-history majors, many aren\u2019t even humanities majors. I\u2019ve been blown away by how enthusiastic students are about learning history from children\u2019s
perspectives and experiences. Through teaching these courses, I\u2019ve realized that children\u2019s history is an incredible entry point for many students who would otherwise skip history class all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My students\u2019 enthusiasm and questions inspired me\u2014not only to figure out a way to share children\u2019s history with others but also to figure out how to make children\u2019s history more accessible to children themselves. And so, with this goal of breaking down the unnecessary wall that separates academic scholars from K-12 teachers and public audiences, I\u2019ve created The Childish Professor, a public-facing collaborative history project. I\u2019m starting small with just an Instagram page for now, but I hope to grow it to other platforms by the end of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what will you find if you follow The Childish Professor<\/a>? I plan to not only introduce the topic of children\u2019s history to the public but also showcase the process of finding children\u2019s voices and agency in the past. We\u2019ll build engaging and educational child-centered history resources for K-8 audiences; share undergraduate research projects centered around children\u2019s history; and elevate new and emerging scholarship from the history of childhood and youth. Check out the page to follow, engage with others, and share children\u2019s history with the wider world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Dr. Holly N.S. White<\/a> is an expert on the history of age and childhood in early America and teaches in the history department at William & Mary. She is the author of Constructing American Childhood: Age-Based Laws and the Illusion of Protection in the Early United States<\/em> (pre-order here<\/a>!) and is the co-editor of Engaging Children in Vast Early America<\/a><\/em>. She currently serves as the co-editor of the Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Read in today’s post about The Childish Professor, a new public history project by Dr. Holly N.S. White that helps make the exciting history of childhood more accessible to students, educators, and more! At William & Mary, I teach a first-year required course that asks students to consider a series of \u201cbig picture questions\u201d relevant to the modern day which I frame through the history of childhood. We consider what it means to be a child today, what it meant to be a child in the past, and whether the label of child is\/was about protection or about control. 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