When we think of childhood, we likely think of it as a period during which the unformed child increasingly becomes proficient. Much of this becoming occurs in a cultural environment, assumed to be largely shaped and sustained by adults. In this course, we will reconsider this claim. In particular, we will do this by exploring the nature and scope of children’s striking, if often unappreciated, competencies. The seminar will consider the degree to which the child has evolved to shape and sustain the cultures that they and their adult caretakers inhabit. Much of this effort will turn on exploring the singular nature of human mind as a device for guiding development rather than a receptacle in which development is inscribed. We acknowledge the (obvious) fact that adults are crucial to the child’s maturation and cultural integration, in significant measure by protecting juveniles and providing sustenance. This course will stress, in however, the crucial role that children play in developmental processes. Toward this end, we will look to those things that limit adult influence on child development, the ways that infants and young children, rather than adults, guide the learning process. In short, the seminar examines the degree to which children make themselves—and by extension their parents—as cultural beings. Finally, we will end by examining what happens when adults don't do a good job of safeguarding their young, and why that may occur.