News & Information

The “Children Between Worlds” exhibit at the Curriculum Resource Center in Phillips Hall.

Photo by Abby Dockter ’12

Books Between Worlds
Children’s books are somewhat different in their discussion of emotionally charged issues because they are direct.

The exhibit “Children Between Worlds” has come a long way to get to Ohio Wesleyan. It began at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany, where the idea originated to build a collection of children’s books promoting a discussion of racism and xenophobia. Since 2005 this collection has been traveling around the United States, and it recently arrived at OWU from Auburn University.

“It’s designed to teach people all over the world about other cultures,” says Amy McClure, professor of education, who made the exhibit at OWU possible through her connection with the International Board on Books for Youth (IBBY). The books represent a wide variety of genres and reading levels, and they are divided into four categories.

The first, called Corner Country after a book by Irene Ulitzka and Gerhard Gepp, contains picture books. Images capture themes of acceptance and multiculturalism in a way that people of all ages can grasp. Armin Gerder’s book Die Insel (The Island) contains powerful imagery suggestive of Holocaust victims’ art, including an allusion to Edward Munch’s painting “The Scream.”

The category “If the World Were a Village” contains nonfiction books. These include David Small’s book of the same name, which applies percentage statistics about world languages, religious practices, and distribution of global resources to a 100-person village. A Butterfly in the City is geared toward children around the age of 12, while The Other Side of Truth is intended for teens. Childhood Cravings is designed to address more complex themes associated with cultural models and is appropriate for ages 15 and above. Not only are the books in the exhibit written for a range of ages, they are also written in an assortment of languages and come from publishers all over the world.

While the books are written for children, McClure says that they are valuable to people of all ages. Children’s books are somewhat different in their discussion of emotionally charged issues because they are direct. This exhibit addresses phenomena with which everyone in a multicultural world eventually comes into contact. Considering what it feels like to be alienated or to experience an unfamiliar culture holds an important lesson for college students as well as young children, particularly at a campus as diverse as OWU. This is especially true for upcoming Education majors. “Prospective teachers need to know books that foster positive relations between cultures,” McClure says.

The exhibit is housed in the Curriculum Resource Center in Phillips Hall. For more information and a better understanding of the exhibit, however, try reading some of these titles:

• The Story of Ferdinand by Leaf Munro
• Beyond the Mango Tree by Amy Bronwen Zemser
• Yoruba Girl Dancing by Simi Bedford
• A Step From Heaven by An Na
• Habibi by Naomi Shehab Nye
• Samir and Yonathan by Daniella Carmi
• The Other Side of Truth by Beverly Naidoo
• Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
• If The World Were a Village by David Small
• Children Just Like Me by Anabel Kindersley
• Madlenka by Peter Sis
• Frog and the Stranger by Max Velthuijs

– Abby Dockter ’12

The Early Childhood Center provides valuable work experience for OWU students.

Photo by Ologie

OWU’s ECC Teaches Students of all Ages
The Early Childhood Center allows OWU students to test what they’ve learned in the classroom

Kids aren’t the only ones getting an education at Ohio Wesleyan’s Early Childhood Center.

The center serves two purposes, says director Kellie Hall: It is a local preschool for Delaware’s
three-, four- and five-year-olds, and it is a lab school for the University. Employing more work-study students than anywhere else on campus, the ECC is a valuable resource for students from a wide variety of disciplines including psychology, education, and even the fine arts: Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Theatre & Dance sometimes organizes workshops, and physical education students occasionally put together obstacle courses and fun activities for kids in Edwards Gymnasium.

Sociology major Rachael Bolyard ’12 got involved with the program as a sophomore and considers it a good fit for her. “I love working with children,” she says, noting that the challenges of the work seem insignificant compared to the gains. She pays special attention to individual strengths and weaknesses, taking time to get to know the kids. “It’s hard to know when to push and when to back off sometimes,” she says. Kristen Hull, a student teacher, agrees that customizing teaching style to the individual class dynamic is challenging. “The hardest thing is classroom management. Sometimes you need to do special things to get them to listen,” Hull says. “Every class is different.”

Student aides always begin by washing their hands, and then it’s off to the assigned classroom to read stories, prepare activities and snacks, supervise, or just interact with the kids. “It gives them a lot of hands-on experience, especially working with young children,” Hall explains. It also allows students to connect the theory they learn in the classroom with the realities of working with children. Sessions are two and a half hours long, several times per week. Students may work as little as two hours or as many as eight hours in a week, and Hall admits that scheduling is one of her biggest challenges.  “I wear a lot of different hats!” laughs Hall, who also teaches in the education department as well as working with another local preschool.

She considers the ECC valuable work experience for students, giving them an idea of what they like.  “They might be inspired to work with young children,” Hall says. “Sometimes they learn that they really would like to work with kids that are a little bit older.” This is the case of Bolyard, who is more interested in working with adolescents. Regardless, she says, the job helps her develop valuable patience and skills that can be applied to a variety of professions. “It helps you gain interpersonal skills, since you have to interact with other aides and teachers as well as kids. It also helps you see things in different ways,” she says. Bolyard asserts that the think-on-your-feet creativity learned at the ECC is a valuable asset in any workplace.

– Abby Dockter ’12

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