No matter what your major, from Engineering to Art History, you will interact with children throughout your life. UW-Madison’s Psych 460: Child Development, prepares you to do exactly that. Children look to us, so we must do our job for them become successful people.
In class we stressed the importance that surrounding individuals have on the lives of children and their outcomes as adults. Childhood is a critical period for learning and development so setbacks can be detrimental. With the knowledge and takeaways from this class, I know I will be a better parent and person around children. While it is a higher level course, the content was so interesting and applicable that studying and paying attention in class weren’t a strenuous task like many other classes.
Professor Karl Rosengren taught the course when I took it to about 200 students. It is 3-4 credits, available during fall and spring semesters and counts towards required intermediate credits. Professor Rosengren kept students engaged and interested, even bringing in babies to do demonstrations with opportunities for extra credit. He renamed exams to “Celebrations of Learning” and had a very positive and helping attitude for anyone ready to learn. He knew what he was talking about and drew on his own life for anecdotes.
This course taught me about how the child’s brain develops, why they make the silly mistakes they do when learning, and how we end up who we are when we grow up. It contains knowledge that everyone should know!