This winter term, some students get to have story time put back in their curriculum. Professor Claudia Mills is teaching WT 262: Writing Children's Books where college students study books they haven't seen since elementary school and even write some of their own.
The class filled up immediately and Mills is just as excited as her students to spend a month on this subject. Although she came to DePauw as a Visiting Professor of Ethics from teaching Philosophy at The University of Colorado Boulder, Mills has published fifty children's books and holds a master's degree in library science. With such a strong background in the genre, Mills has been able to branch outside of her department and offer courses and events on children's literature. This winter term marks her final contribution to DePauw on the subject as she'll return to Colorado after this year.
"Here at a liberal arts college you can follow what you love and that's encouraged for students and faculty," Mills said.
At least once a year, Professor Martha Rainbolt teaches one course on children's literature, but the demand is high. Rainbolt's class always fills, sometimes with a few students over capacity. Lucky for Mills, DePauw offers the chance for professors to teach courses that aren't in the field of their department. Last semester, Mills taught the children's literature course herself and this spring she'll teach a class on political philosopher John Rawls.
DePauw students are more than eager to spend a semester discussing the books from their childhood and considering the genre for their plans after graduating. After fifth-year senior Panyin Conduah didn't get a spot for Mills' class, she got a SPAC for Mills' winter term.
"I wanted to take Writing Children's Books because I hope to get experience. Since I'm an English Writing major, I want to explore different kinds of writing topics," she said.
With her experiences as an author and working in the Scholastic publishing company, Mill's winter term teaches college students how to write for children.
"I want my students to connect with their own childhood memories in a way that can spark their own writing and I want to give them an idea of how much fun it is to write a children's book and how much work it is," Mills said.
The first assignment for the class was to venture out to Putnam County Library and check out some of their favorite books growing up. In addition, students will have a workshop taught by DePauw alumn and author of The Notebook of Doom and Giddy-Up Daddy!, Troy Cummings and watch Stephen Colbert's interview with Where the Wild Things Are author Maurice Sendak.
"I also saw on the syllabus that we're going to have one night at Prindle in our pajamas and I was super excited," said Conduah.
In addition to literature classes, Mills also hosted a symposium on Ethics and Children's Literature in September at Prindle. Children's Books authors and literature scholars, philosophers, and DePauw students came together to discuss the morals in children's books. "There a long history of taking Children's Literature seriously for ethics. Morals still matter. Ethical appraisals of literature still matter," Mills said.
And while this may be Mills' last children's literature experience at DePauw, she'll still teach happily ever after back at University of Colorado Boulder. She'll be bringing a course on children's literature to her school.
"I'm planning the DePauwification for U of C. My goal is to make it as fun as it is at DePauw for myself and my students," Mills said.