He was safe at a home

[question everything]

Saturday, May 7, 2005

He was safe at a home

UCI professor raised in orphanage says it's some kids' best hope.

By MARLA JO FISHER
The Orange County Register

Richard McKenzie vividly remembers the day his aunts dropped him off at the orphanage. For the two-hour drive, he recalls them trying to persuade his brother and him to stop crying, telling them the children's home was the best place for them. Now, 53 years later, he thinks they might have been right.

(snip)

McKenzie wants people to know that such homes can be a positive place for some children – a place where they can find a stability that he believes is better than a succession of foster homes.

(snip)

He recently produced a documentary, "Homecoming: The Forgotten World of America's Orphanages," that profiles 15 people who grew up in children's homes. The movie is making its circuit of film festivals. McKenzie hopes it will make a difference.

More..
http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/05/07/sections/news/news/article_511305.php

[patricia92243]

1. I used to work in a children's home (in the office). The children were

definitely better off.

They usually come from nightmare homes, and foster home do not usually have the ability to provide the counseling, etc that these unfortunate children need.

Of course, that is not always the case.

Each situation needs to be treated separately, but a children's home is a viable choice.

[politicat]

2. Considering how hideous group homes have become, and how rare an ideal

fostering situation is, an institution might be better.

My great-grandmothers both spent significant amounts of their childhoods in institutions, one in the Soldiers and Sailors Home in Indiana, the other in the Methodist Refuge outside of Chicago. Both did very well, and were far better educated than many of their familial-raised peers. Neither suffered long-term emotional effects.

A cousin and peer went to Moose Heart as an older child after his father died, his mother remarried, and he could not cope with his step-father and siblings. He now thinks it was the best place for him, because he had distance from his mother and time to grieve and cope, as well as professional support. He's an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers.

They're not perfect for every child, but for the ones that they work for, they're invaluable.

Besides, if we outlaw abortion, we better start building secular orphanages. We'll need them. :sarcasm:

[SouthernDem2004]

3. Remember someone else with this idea? link:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp941218/12180076.htm

Scary isn't it?

[yella_dawg]

4. I don't know...

My grandmother was a "house mother" in a Methodist Home for nearly thirty years. I hate to think what that vile, despicable, hideous beast put those kids through. I'm scarred just from occasional visits.