As part of new initiatives striving to better children's lives in the US and abroad, the Tufts University Center for Children (TUCC) held a conference on Wednesday where professors and students discussed recent academic and philanthropic achievements dealing with children's issues.
The TUCC, which was founded in 1999, is a resource for faculty and students rather than a hands-on volunteer organization. One student refers to it as a "think-tank facilitator." A Community of Scholars faculty group under the umbrella of the TUCC generates ideas about how to improve the lives of children, and coordinators Donald Wertlieb and Lois Wainstock orchestrate the sharing and application of these ideas with the rest of the Tufts community and the community at large.
TUCC Director Donald Wertlieb considers his work a sort of "matchmaking." He brings together members of different departments and schools within the University who are interested in the same children's issue.
Wednesday's multifaceted discussion was reflective of the TUCC's mission to facilitate social action by encouraging cross-disciplinary discourse about the lives of children worldwide. It is the fundamental belief of this organization that, as stated in their 2002 summary of objectives, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
Two keynote panelists, Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith and Dr. Barry Levy, kicked off the event. Prothrow-Stith, a professor of public health practice at Harvard University, spoke about the causes of and possible solutions for domestic youth violence. Dr. Levy, who specializes in family medicine and community health, focused on youth violence from a global perspective.
Then two members of the TUCC's Community of Scholars program spoke to the group. The Community of Scholars is a group of faculty from various disciplines who share the results of their research with one another.
"The scholars learn from each other by challenging their own disciplinary perspective," TUCC Associate Director Lois Wainstock said. Wainstock serves as a non-faculty coordinator for all TUCC events.
Associate professor of economics and TUCC Community Scholar Dr. Drusilla Brown said that children can teach us much about the "transmission of cultural practices."
"Studying children is like watching culture grow in a petri dish," Brown said. Brown spoke about the innumerable compromises that take place between parents, between child and parents, and between child and peers. According to Brown, the sum of this "bargaining" reveals the nature of the new generation as well as its primary caretakers.
Brown said that not all solutions to social crises can be attained through economic development. She cited one such crisis, anorexia, as an "affliction of the upper classes."
Associate professor of child development Dr. Jayanthi Mistry spoke about her cross-cultural comparison of parenting styles, and the relationship between these styles and children's patterns of learning.
The TUCC not only involves faculty members, but also welcomes undergraduates as interns. Junior Randy Wiggins, a Child Development and International Relations major, helped coordinate Wednesday's conference and says she also brainstorms with the TUCC ideas that will integrate a greater number of undergraduates into the organization.
"[We are] brainstorming ideas to involve more undergrads," Wiggins said.
Two summer courses have been created by the TUCC thus far.
One focuses on youth violence in America, and it integrates the departments of Education, Child Development, and Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning. Together these contributors identify the issues surrounding domestic youth violence, and they investigate the present practices of dealing with these issues. The TUCC makes this information available in order to influence policy making on the local, state, and national level. This course is headed by Professor Howard Spivak.
Another course on the "natural world" researches the benefits of therapy for children in the outdoors and with animals. Pediatric neurologist Mia McCollin runs the program within this course that investigates the effects animals have on children. McCollin and others claim that dental school clinics could benefit from using dogs in their offices in order to alleviate children's anxiety. The program also maintains that children with disabilities can live fuller lives by forging positive relationships with animals.
In the future, the TUCC intends to increase research, both in quantity and in quality, and to augment public awareness about children's issues. TUCC members hope that these efforts will encourage citizens to become more engaged in the development of their societies. They hope this will ultimately lead to the improvement of children's lives domestically and globally.
Undergraduates can acquire more information about TUCC and international children's issues at the TUCC Resource Room, located in the basement of Carmichael Hall.
