Faculty Senate approves Childhood Studies major

Faculty Senate members have approved a new Childhood Studies major at St. Bonaventure University.The major, which has yet to be approved by New York state, would allow students who wish to pursue careers in child services to do so without having to become a teacher, according to the official proposal for the major.

"The program is a non-certification program," said Nancy Casey, chair of the education department.

Since the proposed major does not culminate in certification, it could serve as an excellent alternative to those students who do not seek to become teachers, Casey said.

For example, it is a requirement in the certification programs of education that students maintain a 3.0 GPA or risk dismissal from the program. In the Childhood Studies major, there would be no GPA requirement. This benefits those students who wish to be involved with helping children but simply do not have the grades to stay afloat in the certification programs.

The major reason for this latest development, though, is that some students simply feel that teaching is not their calling. As Casey said, many students come to St. Bonaventure as prospective teachers but soon realize that it is not for them.

"There are students who come in thinking, 'I desperately want to be a teacher,' and there are high school students coming into college who say, 'I really love children, but I don't want to teach,'" Casey said. "Being a teacher is a very serious commitment in terms of a career. You have to not only love children; you have to really want to work with them in an academic setting."

Casey said she hopes the proposed major will give students the opportunity to do so without making that commitment. If a student is not interested in the academic aspects of childhood studies, there are various other scenarios in which he or she can aid children.

"The kinds of careers that students might be interested in are perhaps in a hospital, where they have programs for children; perhaps in a rehabilitation center, where they are doing some sort of a daycare program," Casey said. "These are people who are passionate about working with children (and) really want to get involved in that kind of a human service career, but don't necessarily want to be a classroom teacher. So it gives them a different route to take."

Currently, there are no major changes to the education department in sight as a result of the proposed major. There will be no new staffing, and many of the classroom requirements will be already existing courses.

"It's a major that is going to take advantage of the current staffing at the university," Casey said. "It's not going to involve any new staffing, because (students) will be taking many of the same courses in the elementary education program. They will also be taking sort of a cognate section where they would take some sociology and/or psychology courses. They would have the opportunity to take some physical education courses."

The one significant change to the curriculum, though, will be the addition of a brand new course for seniors entitled EDUC 493, Internship in Childhood Studies. The internship, according to the approved course description, is "the culminating experience in the professional preparation for students majoring in Childhood Education." It will offer students who major in Childhood Studies the opportunity to learn in a supervised setting with professionals in the field.

"This will be a non-teaching internship," Casey said. "We will be working with local agencies, and perhaps even schools, because there are tasks and responsibilities in schools that are non-teaching responsibilities. So the students will be doing a significant internship during one of their semesters in their senior year."

Casey said the new major will be beneficial to students and is glad to see it finally come to fruition.

She said, "This is an idea that we have been talking about for years, and finally we got time to do it.