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As a children and youth studies minor, you will compare how the role of children in society has changed over time. You will also come to understand the complexity and diversity of social conditions that children experience around the world, and gain skills in research and advocacy.
Declaring a minor allows you to explore other areas of interest and make interdisciplinary connections, and minors complement your major. By declaring a minor, you can set yourself apart as a candidate for job opportunities in education, child welfare and social services, counseling, youth work, education, pediatrics, public health and well-being, juvenile justice and the law, and the arts.
The program information listed here reflects the approved curriculum for the 2024–25 academic year per the Brooklyn College Bulletin. Bulletins from past academic years can be found here.
Hailed as “pioneering” by The New York Times, the children’s studies interdepartmental program brings together knowledge about children and youth from infancy through the age of legal majority as seen from the perspectives of the arts, humanities, social and natural sciences, medicine, and law.
Children’s studies was conceived as a genuinely interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary new field of study, and represents an attempt to bring to bear knowledge from the different sectors of the arts and sciences on the conception of children as a class and to integrate this knowledge at an appropriate level of understanding and articulation.
In the children’s studies program, courses include children’s literature, the history of childhood, child development, sociology of children, children in education, child health, the African American child, and the Puerto Rican child as well as speech and language development. Other courses are in preparation for the near future such as a course on the rights of children. Also envisioned are generic courses on children and the arts, children and the mass media, new technologies and the Internet, children and the environment, and children of the world, emphasizing cross-cultural and global perspectives in children.
The aim of the children’s studies program is to contribute to providing a voice to children and childhood that is commensurate with their reality and not exclusively a construction of adults.
The program director, with the approval of the program’s advisory committee, may allow substitutions for one or more of following requirements consistent with the educational goals of the program.
Children and Youth Studies 2100 or 3110.
Two courses from the following: Children and Youth Studies 2120, 2200, 3126, 3310, 3410, 3620, 3630, 4200; English 3189 or Communication Arts, Sciences, and Disorders 1717 or 2231; Health and Nutrition Sciences 3170 or Children and Youth Studies 4100; Psychology 2210; Sociology 2401.
Two courses from the following: Africana Studies 3335; Children and Youth Studies 3610, 3510, 3130, 3430, 3320, 5100; Childhood, Bilingual, and Special Education 2002 or Secondary Education 2002; Children and Youth Studies 3120 or History 3320; Puerto Rican and Latino Studies 2005.
All courses must be completed with a grade of C or higher.
A minimum of nine credits must be completed at Brooklyn College.
Students interested in this minor should consult with the Children and Youth Studies program adviser to plan an appropriate sequence of courses and to declare their minor.
Contact the Children and Youth Studies program for information on academic advisers and office hours.
Brooklyn College is an integral part of the cultural and artistic energy of New York City. Our faculty members in Children and Youth Studies offer incomparable expertise and tremendous talent, and each bring a unique perspective to their teaching and mentoring in and out of the classroom.
