Dr. Mildred Laughlin embodies the scope of our discussion this morning. She holds an A.B. degree in English from Fort Hays State University, an M. A. in education from Wichita State University, an M. L. S. from the University of Oklahoma, and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Oklahoma. She has taught in various programs of library science throughout her professional career, and, most importantly for this morning's program, she has been teaching children's literature for the past twelve years. Dr. Laughlin is presently on the faculty of the School of Library Science at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Laughlin will represent the library science perspective this morning. Professor Joy Anderson comes to us not only as a scholar of children's literature but also as a writer of children's and adult literature and as a literary critic. Her involvement with children's literature spans the last decade. Professor Anderson is presently Director of the program in Studies of Children's Literature and Writing for Children in the English Department at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Professor Anderson will present the English Department approach. Edward J. Jennerich, Chairman Library Science Department Baylor University Waco, Texas 76703 Literature for Children as Taught in a Department of Education Jane Bingham One purpose of my undergraduate children's literature course at Oakland University is to provide students with an opportunity to examine critically children's trade books and to consider how they, as teachers, librarians, parents, and friends, can most effecvely bring children and good literature together. My course is actually entitled Literature for Children, not Children's Literature. I think this is an important distinction because it tends to emphasize literature and children equally. I expect my students to work towards developing answers to such questions as: What is literature? What is the nature of the child and childhood? What constitutes a child's book? What is the role of the adult in the life of a child? What constitutes a "good" children's book? What is creativity? What is the purpose of providing children with literature? What should the school's function be in relation to literature? You'll notice that I said I wanted the students to work toward answers to these questions. Of course, 70 I don't have my own answers completely worked out, but it's the working towards an answer that I feel is important. I have taught my undergraduate course using an anthology of children's literature, Arbuthnot, Johnson, or Huber, but I have sometimes used Lukens ' Handbook along with selected paperbacks. I have also used children's literature textbooks, both Huck as well as Arbuthnot and Sutherland. The textbook approach has proven to be the most satisfactory so far. I think many of my students come to the course expecting to read some "cute" books and to do a couple of "Mickey Mouse" projects. Education students tend to be practical people, so when they are assigned a text which describes the whole field and presents many different books as well as ideas for such activities as storytelling, puppetry, and creative drama, it assures them, I think, that they are enrolled in a "useful" course. They also feel that expensive volumes such as Huck' s or Arbuthnot and Sutherland's will be good reference books for them once they begin to teach. In one of our first meetings in my children's literature course, I take my students to our children's book collection. I show them the different kinds of references available — book lists, books about authors and illustrators , essays on children's literature, etc. From the first, they are amazed at the richness available. I also show them copies of the Horn Book, School Library Journal , The Bulletin, Children' s Literature in Education, Language Arts , Children's Book Review Index , Interracial Books for Children, Signal, and, of course, Children' s Literature. I urge them to read book reviews from these journals before writing their own critiques, which they do for some of their assignments, in order to get a feel for the kind of reviewing each journal does. They spend the remainder of the class...