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Coming of Age
by Emily Carlson
Photos by Jeff Miller
 While
studying how humans adapt and thrive in their natural environment,
the School of Human Ecology itself has evolved, paralleling a changing
society and finding its place in academia.
When parents step into the UW Preschool Laboratory, they glimpse
a world of make-believe, where balls of pink yarn become scoops
of strawberry ice cream and where rectangular blocks turn into cell
phones. To the outsider and even to the children, it's all play.
But to the preschool's teachers and some university researchers,
it's learning disguised as fun.
"It looks like play, but the children are busy learning everything,"
says Jackie Leckwee '75, MS'78, director of the preschool. "Pretend
play is a huge component of what they do every day. They take on
roles so they can understand them."
By turning a classroom's corner into an ice cream parlor, for instance,
the youngsters learn about colors, flavors, shapes, money, and how
to interact with others. This knowledge, nestled inside games and
activities, starts children down the path toward discovering the
world around them and the real roles they will play in it one day.
This educational philosophy applies to more than just the preschool.
In fact, the School of Human Ecology (SoHE) — the administrative
parent of the preschool — has followed this style of learning
for nearly one hundred years. When it offered its first courses
in the spring of 1904, students spent class time cooking in laboratory
kitchens and sketching different room arrangements.
Someone peeking through the windows of South Hall, where the school
started out, might have assumed these undergraduates - all of whom
were women - simply played homemaker, just like the children at
the preschool do today in small, plastic houses. But to people familiar
with the home economics program, the young women who enrolled in
the classes learned about chemistry, bacteriology, sociology, health,
architecture, and economics. Their education taught them about the
families and businesses that, in time, many would start.
Even though this learning disguised as "domestic science"
leaves its students with just as much - if not more — knowledge
about the world in which they live, the School of Human Ecology
has struggled to be recognized for all its contributions by the
outside world, including the university.
Over the years, this struggle has resulted in three administrative
shifts, four physical moves, and four unique names. While each change
has helped the school develop into what it is today, many people
still think that its primary mission is to train the next generation
of homemakers and home economics teachers.
"We want to have people understand what it is we do and that
it's more than vocational training," says SoHE Dean Robin Douthitt,
adding that only twenty of the school's current 1,009 undergraduates
are preparing to teach life management skills at the high school
level.
"The challenge is to get them to see us for who we are."
Playing — from being doctor and patient
(top of page) to capturing imagination on paper (above) —
is how children learn at the school's Preschool Laboratory.
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Today, SoHE resides on Linden Drive in a building that it once
shared with UW Extension. With forty-two faculty, many of whom have
joint appointments across campus, and eight majors within five departments,
the school strives to improve the quality of human life by studying
people in their natural environments. This is human ecology.
"All of the biological sciences now understand that living
things are best understood by studying them in their natural habitats
— where they live," says David Riley, SoHE professor
of human development and family studies.
For Riley and other faculty on campus, the preschool laboratory
is a perfect setting for studying child development in action. He
says, "It's a natural habitat where we can study children through
direct observation."
SoHE may have more space, students, and administrative independence
than it did a century ago, but it upholds a legacy of education,
research, and service centered on improving human life, particularly
that of the family.
"A lot of what we do here is family related in the broadest
sense," explains Douthitt. "As goes the family, so goes
civilization. We're very proud that we've recognized this throughout
our history." The focus during much of this history, however,
has centered on women — improving their daily lives and expanding
their future roles.
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On Wisconsin Home
Page
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Coming of Age
- Parents of newborns and toddlers can access Professor David
Riley's research-based advice by reading his instructional
newsletters.
- In 2003, the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
will mark its 100th
anniversary. Learn about the people and events that made the
school the vibrant educational and research institution it is
today
- Trace the history
of human ecology through archival material from one of SoHE's
competitors for students, Cornell University.
Fall 2003 Features
Alumni News
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