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Photograph by David Zadig
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A colleague describes Martha Minow as "a triple threat." She has
taught at Harvard Law School for 15 years and serves on the faculty committees
of two interfaculty initiatives: the Project on Schooling and Children and
the Program in Ethics and the Professions. She says she took up law because
of her interest in improving children's lives. "I thought law was having
more and more to say about children's issues, and I wanted to understand
and not be cowed by the legal language."
Minow had previously earned a master's degree in education at Harvard,
where she took courses on child psychology and development that fanned her
interest in children. At Yale Law School, she and a fellow student started
a clinic to represent children in court. "We were dealing with kids
in trouble," she says, "but by the time courts were involved in
their lives, the best we could seek was damage control. That experience
deeply affected me."
She subsequently clerked for Judge David Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia, and for Justice Thurgood Marshall, both of
whom had a strong interest in the status of children in law. "They
said it was the hardest issue to tackle," she notes. "Marshall
said it's the one that's never been solved."
Minow describes her research as proceeding along two major lines, one focusing
on children and families, the other on minority groups. The two lines often
intersect at schools, she says, "because schools are the major institutions
that societies put in place to socialize young people. My recent work has
focused on family support, recognizing that the major infiuences on
children's lives are the adults directly involved with them. How can we
strengthen those adults? How can we set public policy so that it doesn't
hurt or hinder them but instead supports them?"
As cochair of the HPSC task force focused on "rethinking America's
commitment to children," Minow believes Harvard can make a difference
"if we can figure out ways to work together. We have enormously
talented people, including people in various schools who know how to structure
institutions to produce accountability. We have to bring people who understand
children together with people who understand how to make institutions work
well. We should invite leaders in any relevant field to talk to each
other about children's issues so that they go back to their departments
or communities excited about them. We should recruit junior faculty to look
for research projects that address children's needs. I am delighted to see
the topic of children in the Core Curriculum so that every Harvard undergraduate
has to think about taking the course, with some following up at the graduate
level. We know those things make a difference."
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