Message from the SHCY President

Kriste Lindenmeyer

I find it so easy to get comfortable and isolated within my own academic specialty. After all, isn’t that why I chose to specialize? I’m happy that after twenty years studying history I still get excited hearing an excellent history presentation, seeing a good historical documentary, viewing a creative museum exhibit, or reading a new book relying on familiar historical methods. I am very aware that there is so much history to learn and so very little time for me to do it. Nonetheless, as a historian of childhood and youth I realize that it is also important to get out of my academic comfort zone. There are many benefits of using a multidisciplinary approach for uncovering the history of children and youth. But multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary are feats easier to spell than to accomplish. One of my goals as SHCY president is to help create an atmosphere in our organization promoting dialogue among scholars from a variety of disciplines. It can be frustrating to see how little historians have influenced other academic fields examining issues that touch children. But, rather than blame “the others” for their lack of historical perspective, I hope that learning more about the research in other fields will shape my work so that it can be more useful to those outside my specific academic field.

With this goal in mind, I have been spending more of my time reading the work of people trained in fields other than history. For example, geographers examining children’s spaces emphasize the important relationship of environment and place as tools for interpreting the learning experiences of children and adolescents. Colleagues in psychology point me to evidence highlighting the significance of family relationships to children’s acquired literacy. Public health researchers connect access to quality health care and good nutrition to young people’s capacity to learn. Computer scientists are uncovering evidence of young people’s self-efficacy developed in online communities like MySpace. Far from “bowling alone,” for those with access to the Internet, online communities build relationships among young people in ways fostered by new technology, but old patterns.

Scholars examining the history of children and youth should not “bowl alone” either. SHCY has members trained in a variety of fields, but most are historians. Next year’s conference in Sweden will offer new opportunities for expanding our reach. Make your plans to submit a panel presentation and/or attend. It is going to be an important learning opportunity for all of us.