Sheldon White Analyzes Effectiveness of Social Institutions for Children

Few high school students know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. But Lindsley Professor of Psychology Sheldon H. White '50 was different.

He wrote in his high school yearbook that he would be a psychologist--and he became one.

"I liked reading literature a lot but it didn't seem that I could make a living at that," says White, who is now chair of the psychology department. "I went towards psychology because it seemed a way you could get your hands on human nature."

White, who says he was a "chess nerd" in college, has spent the years since his graduation studying developmental psychology, the history of psychology and children's learning and cognitive development.

He focuses on children's learning at the onset of schooling and childhood amnesia--the limited recall that people have of the first six to eight years of their lives. In addition, he explores how social institutions for children are or are not fitted to their needs.

While at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, White worked on the development of "Sesame Street" and the educational programs Headstart and Followthrough.

"I came just as the war on poverty was getting going," he said, adding that he is most proud of his involvement in the development of programs for children.

He also directed a federal study to investigate what kinds of programs could be developed for underprivileged children.

"It broke trail not only for myself but for others," he said. "I never again could look at psychology in the same way."

Yet he notes it had little effect on federal government policies and said he wonders how much direct influence psychologists have on policy.

"Psychological research sets the conditions under which people will accept or deny social institutions ," he said ."People in the ivory tower have influence; you just can't trace it because it simply disappears into what people believe and understand."

White said he hopes to pass the wisdom he gained from his experiences with these programs onto his students.

He hopes they "learn to look back and forth between how kids are behaving and what we're doing at these social institutions for children."

White said there are many differences between the Harvard that he attended as an undergraduate and today's Harvard.

"The Square was small and villagey," he said" Harvard Square belonged to Harvard and to the people who lived around it, who were mainly retired academics That liked the ambiance."

The students were "very preppy... wore hams tweed jackets, chino trousers and a shirt and tie,, because you couldn't get into the dining hall without a shirt and tie," he recalls.

Policies were different too.

"The shopping period was longer and I frankly liked that," he says, "Some of the best experiences I had were classes I never would've taken, but that I shopped with a friend."

White said he has enjoyed being both a professor and an undergraduate but misses the "pure pleasure of someone who doesn't make a living at it" that he experienced as an undergraduate.

"There's a lurch as you move from enjoying it to selling it," he said.

White, who is married and lives in Newtonville, has two grown sons. In his spare time, he enjoys gardening, reading, painting and sculpting.

"When I was an undergraduate, I was a violinist and I was addicted to chess," he said. "Part of growing up is that you leave part of yourself behind when you have time and the opportunity to pick them up again."