Rethinking Orphanages for the 21st Century

By Sage Pubns

Book Overview

With welfare reform at the top of the U.S. Congress agenda, the orphanage debate has resurfaced. The current child welfare system is flawed, operating to the detriment of tens of thousands of children. Foster care, intended to act as a temporary solution, has become inadequate permanent care. While adoption is a solution for some children, many children are difficult to place or legally unavailable for permanent placement. Editor Richard B. McKenzie contends that the resurgence of private orphanages or children′s homes will become an option for those children. Rethinking Orphanages for the 21st Century reviews the policy reforms necessary for these homes to become reliable solutions for many of the nation′s disadvantaged and abused children. This edited volume includes entirely new works and maintains continuity and cohesiveness as it explores a variety of topics ranging from judicial issues, child maltreatment, history of orphanages, regulation and funding, and solutions for reform. McKenzie, who grew up in an orphanage in the 1950s, includes the first and only large-scale survey of orphanage alumni, involving 1,600 respondents. He found that as a group, they outpaced their counterparts in the general population by significant margins on nearly all levels, including education, income, and attitude toward life.

Child welfare professionals, policymakers, sociologists, social workers, and family studies scholars will find this timely volume of great interest.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0761914447
• ISBN13: 9780761914440
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Sage Publications
• Length: 334 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A wonderful solution to a growing problem..

I am always amazed by the outpouring of negative opinions by some who do not have the slightest clue of the subject they are talking about. This book clearly hit a nerve with one of the reviewers and I can't understand why. First let me offer my humble opinion about the subject matter presented in this book. I believe it is a clear, concise and factual accounting of why we need to reexamine the concept of orphanages today. I do not believe the current system of welfare (generational it seems) and foster care are working. I am biased in favor of it because I am a product of it. So were my 7 other brothers and sisters. All of us benefited immeasurably from living in an orphanage. We received a quality education with a no fail policy by the way, a religious background, an understanding of other cultures and races (because we lived together) an independent spirit and a great work ethic from learning how. Every one of us turned out to be productive, upstanding citizens responsible for ourselves and our families. We are veterans, business owners, nurses, artists and airline mechanics. I have no doubt that our tax contribution alone has exceeded whatever was expended all those years ago and then some. I do believe that this book is a must read for anyone who wants to be open minded enough to look at a better solution to a growing problem with our kids, the future of our country. Why not.

From one who works in a county child placement unit.

You'll wear out your yellow highlighter reading Dr. McKenzie's book, Rethinking Orphanages for the 21st Century. Many coworkers in my own placement unit and our social worker counterparts agree with Dr. McKenzie and other orphan alumni that a well-run orphanage could play a major role in rescuing children from the often damaging foster-care system that we are currently forced to rely upon. Children who are removed from abusive or negligent homes pay a double price once they enter the system of marginal foster care, or group homes and their renegade staff. This book is straight forward and easy to read; but if you need statistics, those are there, also. I salute Dr. McKenzie and the other contributors to this vital book --essential reading for or anyone in the Probation or Social Services industry, or for those who simply care for America's abused and neglected children.

Lawrence Payne, Author of: Our Mother - Her Bottles

I thoroughly enjoyed Rethinking Orphanages for the 21th Century. Until I read this book, I never gave thought to the institution where I spent time as an orphanage. I loved that institution/orphanage and it was great for me. What I loved about this book was the realistic look into the past and the current foster care system. When people hear the word Orphanages it brings up negative connotations. I wish that people would visit our contemporary foster/group homes and talk to the kids. We have done more damage with our current concept of child welfare than all the orphanages combined. Whether you can/cannot visit kids in our foster care system, either way I invite you to read Rethinking Orphanages for the 21th Century, it is a wonderful book.

An important book for an important topic

I work supporting orphanages in third world countries. I also work with children in the US who are in dysfunctional families who receive government aid. This book supports the idea of orphanages as one of the tools in caring for children in need of support. I strongly recommend this book to anyone truly looking for ways to help children in need. It's ideas should be considered based on their merit and not on a political basis.