The Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics
and American Institutions

Poynter Center Fellows

2006-07: Memory: Ethics, Politics, Aesthetics | 2005-06: Nature in the Scientific and Moral Imagination | 2004-05: Ethics and Politics of Childhood | 2003-04: Democracy and Dissent

2004-05 | PC Fellows at APPE | Guest Lecturers | Reading List 2004-05

2004-05: "The Ethics and Politics of Childhood"

The following IU faculty participated in the Center's second annual Interdisciplinary Poynter Faculty Fellowship:

• Michael Grossberg, Professor of History and Law
• Robert Kunzman, School of Education
• Samuel Odom, School of Education
• Aviva Orenstein, School of Law
• Jonathan Plucker, School of Education
• Sandra Shapshay, Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences

	The PC Fellows for 2004-05: Rob Kunzman, Sam Odom, Sandra Shapshay, Byron Bangert, Aviva Orenstein, Richard Miller, Melissa Seymour, Jonathan Plucker, Michael Grossberg

The Fellows were joined by three people from the Poynter Center: Richard Miller, Director; Byron Bangert, Research Associate; and Melissa Seymour, Research Assistant. The group studied such topics as (a) how to conceive of children as distinct from adults; (b) the moral basis of the family; (c) the idea of children's rights; (d) children and the law; (e) private, public, and home schools and their effects on children's development and civic identity; (g) familial, social, and institutional responsibilities to children who are "normal," "special," "gifted," "challenged," etc.

Participants met for discussion ten times over the academic year. The Poynter Center hosted guest lecturers who will speak on the year's theme. Fellows will also produce a publishable article or chapter that draws on their seminar discussions and research.

The Ethics and Politics of Childhood Colloquium

The six 2004-05 Poynter Center Interdisciplinary Fellows presented research based on the papers they produced as a part of their fellowship year. Richard B. Miller, director of the Poynter Center and professor in the Department of Religious Studies, hosted the colloquium on September 17, 2005 at the IMU. Professor Orenstein's paper is available as a Poynter Center monograph. See Orenstein for a copy.

The papers presented were:

• "Protecting Bodies and Minds: History and the Persistent Challenges of American Policies for Children"
  Michael Grossberg, IU School of Law and Department of History
• "Children's Health and Children's Rights"
  Sandra Shapshay, Department of Philosophy
• "Ethical Principles Guiding Educational Research with Children: Protections and Limitations"
  Samuel L. Odom, IU School of Education
• "The Ethics of Child Custody Evaluation: Advocacy, Respect for Parents, and the Right to an Open Future"
  Aviva Orenstein, IU School of Law
• "A Few Good Soldiers: Civic Education and Conservative Christian Homeschoolers"
  Robert Kunzman, IU School of Education
• "Is there a Basic Right to Gifted Education? Philosophical Issues in the Debate between Minimal Competency and Maximal Achievement"
  Jonathan Plucker, IU School of Education

Here's more information about the Fellows.

Michael Grossberg is professor of history & law at Indiana University and editor of the American Historical Review. His research focuses on the relationship between law and society in American history, particularly the intersection of law and the family. He has written a number of books and articles on legal and social history and has held fellowships from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Newberry Library, the American Bar Foundation, and has been a Fellow at the National Humanities Center. Grossberg is currently working on a history of child protection in the United States to be published by Harvard University Press and is co-editing The Cambridge History of Law in the United States.

Robert Kunzman is an assistant professor in the department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education. His research focuses on moral and civic education, and he teaches courses in secondary education foundations and methods, as well as graduate courses in curriculum studies. His recent scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Moral Education and Philosophy of Education 2003. He is currently working on a book-length manuscript, Grappling with the Good: Talking about Religion and Morality in Public Schools.

Samuel L. Odom is Otting Professor of Special Education. He coordinates the Special Education program and is also head of the doctoral program in Special Education. His scholarly interests are in research methodology and evidence-based practice in special education, social relationships of children with disabilities, inclusion of children with disabilities in early education settings, effective treatments for children with autism, programs that prepare preschool children for success in the public schools, and international approaches to early intervention. Odom is the authors of many research articles and has recently co-edited two books on early intervention: Widening the Circle: Including Preschool Children with Disabilities in Preschool Programs and Early Intervention Practices around the World.

Aviva Orenstein received her A.B. and J.D. from Cornell. She clerked for the Honorable Edward R. Becker, Chief Judge for the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Orenstein is admitted to practice law in New Jersey and Indiana. She has served as a guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children. Orenstein began teaching at Indiana University School of Law Bloomington in 1991. Her scholarship concerns the intersection of evidence, law and American culture. She teaches civil procedure, evidence, legal ethics, and children and the law. In 2004, she traveled to Beijing and Taiwan, where she lectured about the American system of legal education, pre-trial discovery, children's rights, and the O.J. Simpson case.

Jonathan Plucker is associate professor of educational psychology and cognitive science at the School of Education, where he currently directs the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (formerly the Indiana Education Policy Center). After teaching elementary and high school science, he received his doctoral degree in educational psychology from the University of Virginia. His research interests include educational policy, creativity and intelligence, and giftedness and talent development; he has written over 80 publications on these topics.

Sandra Shapshay (Ph.D. Columbia, 2001) is lecturer and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Philosophy at Indiana University Bloomington, where she teaches ethics and bioethics. She wrote her dissertation on the relations between art and morality in Kant and Schopenhauer. Since then she has published an article against human reproductive cloning from an ethical-aesthetic standpoint and is currently working on the issue of justice in the allocation of healthcare resources. As a Poynter Faculty Fellow, she will be refining an argument in favor of a moral claim for children to a decent minimum of healthcare in the U.S. Her argument draws a parallel between healthcare and an already recognized constitutional right to free and public access to education for children with disabilities.



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PC Fellows at APPE

Three participants in the Poynter Center Fellows program presented papers on the Ethics and Politics of Childhood at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics annual meeting February 25-27, 2005. Samuel Odom from the School of Education spoke on "Ethical Principles Guiding Educational Research with Children: Protections and Limitations." Aviva Orenstein from the School of Law spoke on "The Ethics of Custody Evaluation: Justice, Intimacy and Respect for Parents." Sandra Shapshay from the Department of Philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences presented an argument for "Children's Health and Children's Rights." Richard Miller, director of the Poynter Center, served as moderator.




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Guest Lecturers on the Ethics and Politics of Childhood

Monday, March 7, 2005. Professor Gareth Matthews, Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, "A Philosophy of Childhood"

Thursday, March 31, 2005. Professor John Barbour, St. Olaf College, "Biography, Autobiography, and Family Dynamics."

Thursday, April 21, 2005. Rob Reich, Political Science and Education at Stanford Univeristy, "Beyond Negligence and Abuse: Intervening in Families on Behalf of Children."




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Reading List 2004-05

Week 1 The World of a Child

a. David Archard, "Children," from The Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics, ed. Hugh LaFollette (New York: Oxford UP, 2003), pp. 91-111.

b. Tamar Shapiro, "What Is a Child?," Ethics 109 (July 1999): 715-738.

c. Gary Cross, The Cute and the Cool: Wondrous Innocence and Modern American Children's Culture (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004), Chapters 2, 3, "The Irony of Innocence," and "The Two Faces of Innocence," pp. 1-42.

d. Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana (New York: Doubleday, 2001), pp. 211-275.

Week 2 Parental Authority and the Child's Right to Self-Determination

a. Joel Feinberg, "The Child's Right to an Open Future," from Whose Child? Children's Rights, Parental Authority, and State Power, ed. William Aiken (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980), pp. 124-153.

b. Sharon Bishop, "Children, Autonomy and the Right to Self-Determination," from Whose Child? Children's Rights, Parental Authority, and State Power, ed. William Aiken (Totowa, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1980), pp. 154-176.

c. Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

d. "Better Children," from Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness - A Report by the President's Council on Bioethics, October 2003, pp. 27-44.

Recommended:

Onora O'Neill, "Children's Rights and Children's Lives," Ethics 98 (Apr., 1988): 445-463.

Week 3 Children and the Family

a. Ferdinand Schoeman, "Rights of Children, Rights of Parents, and the Moral Basis of the Family," Ethics, 91.1 (Oct., 1980): 6-19.

b. Thomas H. Murray, The Worth of a Child (Berkeley: UC Press, 1996), Chapter 3, "Adoption and the Meaning of Parenthood," pp. 41-69.

c. Susan Moller Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family (Basic Books, 1989), Chapter 2, "The Family: Beyond Justice?," pp. 25-40. Also, "Political Liberalism, Justice, and Gender," Ethics 105 (Oct. 1994): 23-43 (excerpt: pp. 35-39).

d. Lynda Clarke and Heather Joshi, "Children's Changing Families and Family Resources," from Children and the Changing Family, ed. An-Magritt Jensen and Lorna McKee, (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003), pp. 15-26.

e. Amanda Wade and Carol Smart, "As Fair as it Can Be? Childhood After Divorce," from Children and the Changing Family, ed. An-Magritt Jensen and Lorna McKee, (London: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003), pp. 105-119.

Recommended:

Thomas H. Murray, The Worth of a Child (Berkeley: UC Press, 1996), Chapter 2, "Families, the Marketplace, and Values: New Ways of Making Babies," pp. 14-40.

Week 4 Children and Cultural Identity

a. Alice Hearst, "Recognizing the Roots: Children's Identity Rights," from Rethinking Childhood, ed. Peter B. Pufall & Richard P. Unsworth, (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2004), pp. 244-261.

b. Kathleen Hall, "There's a Time to Act English and a Time to Act Indian: The Politics of Identity among British-Sikh Teenagers," from Children and the Politics of Culture, ed. Sharon Shephens, (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1995), pp. 243-264.

c. Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), Chapter 5, "Freedom and Culture," pp.75-106.

d. Ruth Mandel, "Second-Generation Noncitizens: Children of the Turkish Migrant Diaspora in Germany," from Children and the Politics of Culture, ed. Sharon Shephens, (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1995), pp. 265-281.

e. Meyer v. Nebraska (1923)

Week 5 Creating Citizens: Children and the State

a. Eamonn Callan, Creating Citizens: Political Education and Liberal Democracy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), Chapter 1, "Education and the Politics of Virtue," pp. 1-11.

b. Amy Gutmann, Democratic Education (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1987), Chapter 4, "The Limits of Democratic Authority," pp. 95-126.

c. Stephen Macedo, Diversity and Distrust: Civic Education in a Multicultural Democracy (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2000), Chapters 6, 7, "Multiculturalism and the Religious Right," and "The Problem of Justification," pp. 149-187.

d. Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education (1987)

Week 6 Gareth Matthews and Rob Reich (Spring 2005 Invited Speaker)

a. Gareth Matthews, "On Valuing Perplexity in Education," The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, vol. 3 Philosophy of Education, ed. David M. Steiner, (Bowling Green: Philosophy Documentation Center, 1999), pp. 1-10.

b. Gareth Matthews, The Philosophy of Childhood (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1994), Chapter 6, "Children's Rights," pp. 68-80.

c. Gareth Matthews, Dialogues with Children (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984), "Knowledge" and "Ethics," pp. 49-62 and 91-101.

d. Rob Reich, "Multicultural Accommodations in Education," from Education and Citizenship in Liberal-Democratic Societies, ed. Kevin McDough and Walter Feinberg, (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003), pp. 299-324.

e. Rob Reich, "Testing the Boundaries of Parental Authority Over Education: The Case of Homeschooling," from Moral and Political Education, ed. Stephen Macedo and Yael Tamir, (New York: NYU Press, 2002), pp. 275-313.

Week 7 Children's Rights and Health Care

a. Sigal Benporath, "Autonomy and Vulnerability: On Just Relations between Adults and Children," Journal of the Philosophy of Education, 37.1 (2003): 127-145.

b. Dan W. Brock, "Children's Rights to Health Care," Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 26.2 (2001): 163-177.

c. Dena S. Davis, "Genetic Dilemmas and the Child's Right to an Open Future," Hastings Center Report 27.2 (Mar/Apr 1997): 7-15.

d. Victor L. Worsfold, "A Philosophical Justification for Children's Rights," Harvard Educational Review 44.1 (Feb. 1974): 142-157.

Week 8 School Choice

a. D. C. Berliner & B. J. Biddle, "Poor Ideas for Reform," from The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Frauds, and the Attack on America's Public Schools (Cambridge: Perseus Books, 1995), pp. 173-181.

b. David J. Ferrero, "Fresh Perspectives on School Choice," The Journal of the Philosophy of Education, 38.2 (2004): 287-296.

c. Amy Gutmann, "Assessing Arguments for School Choice: Pluralism, Parental Rights, or Educational Results?" from School Choice: The Moral Debate, ed. Alan Wolfe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2003), pp. 126-148.

d. David Hollenbach, S. J., "Response" from School Choice: The Moral Debate, ed. Alan Wolfe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2003), pp. 149-152.

e. "Parental Choice in Education: A Statement by the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA)," Momentum (Feb/Mar 2003): 6.

f. Nel Noddings, "Education as a Public Good," from Not for Sale: In Defense of Public Goods, ed. Anatole Anton, Milton Fisk, and Nancy Holmstrom (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), pp. 279-294.

Week 9 Medical, Psychological, and Educational Research with Children

a. Richard B. Miller, Children, Ethics, and Modern Medicine (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003), Chapter 11, "Ethical Issues in Pediatric Research," pp. 238-267.

b. National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, "The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research," (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1976).

c. Office for Human Research Protection, "Special Protections for Children as Research Participants," (Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, 2005).

d. Ivor A. Pritchard, "Travelers and Trolls: Practitioner Research and Institutional Review Boards," Educational Researcher, 31.1 (2002): 3-13.

e. A. E. Shamoo & D. B. Resnik, Responsible Conduct of Research (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), Chapter 1, "Scientific Research and Ethics," pp. 3-23, & pp. 204-207.

Week 10 Protection of Children

a. David Archard, Children: Rights and Childhood, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004), Chapter 14, "The Problem of Child Abuse," pp. 192-206.

b. California Court of Appeals, Fifth District (Franson), In re Jeannette S. (1979).

c. Charlton C. Copeland, "Private Pathologies and Public Policies: Race, Class, and the Failure of Child Welfare," 20 Yale Law & Policy Review 513, 2002.

d. Richard J. Gelles, "Should Family Preservation Be an Important Goal in Child Abuse and Neglect Intervention? No." Unpublished paper.

e. Michael Grossberg, "A Protected Childhood: The Emergence of Child Protection in America," from American Public Life and the Historical Imagination, ed. Wendy Gambler, Michael Grossberg, & Hendrik Hartog, (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), pp. 213-239.

f. Indiana Code 31-34. Article 34. Juvenile Law: Children in Need of Services.




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