University Library Exhibits and Events
Exhibition of Children's Books by Parenting Students
Exhibit: October 2003Samford University Library hosts Values in Parenting: Lessons to be Learned.
The exhibit consists of 30 children books handcrafted by the Parenting Students from the Department of Family Studies. The books are showcased in the Reading Room on the second floor.
Values in Parenting: Lessons To Be Learned
How do we teach a group of students who are not parents themselves the art of parenting? At Samford University students rely on their own experiences of having been parented, in a Problem Based Learning class on Parenting, taught by a Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Clara Gerhardt. When Dr. Kristie Chandler, an adjunct with the Department of Family Studies, taught the Parenting Course, she introduced the idea of writing children's books. It has since become a tradition. The featured book "Petey's Search for Peace" was written in Dr. Chandler's class.
As part of a unit on the role of values in Parenting, students explore the theories on moral and cognitive development in children. As a 'real world' task, the students wrote children's books in which the core message was to impart a "lesson to be learned." The students read these books to children at the Samford Children's Learning Center. The children's enthusiasm was the true test. Our students learned that the art of reading a story, interacting with the youthful audience, and the relationships established, were a crucial part of their 'lessons-to-be-learned' series of books.
"There's room in the nursery for both story free moralizing and morals-free storytelling." (Gurden, 2003)
Closing date: October 31, 2003.
text provided by Dr. Gerhardt