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The foster care system and its effects
Essay on orphan trains
The foster care system and its effects
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Recommended: The foster care system and its effects
Emilie Carr
Dr. McMillan
CASTU401-02
6 September 2017 Essay 1: The Orphan Trains The Orphan Trains were trains that took orphaned children from New York, a lot of whom were immigrants, and transported them to foster families all around rural America so that they would be off the streets and could live better lives. Some of the children that were brought onto the trains were not orphans, but were children who lived in extreme poverty as their parents were not able to properly care and provide for them. This initiative began in 1853 by the Children’s Aid Society, a private, child welfare nonprofit in New York City, formed by Charles Loring Brace. Brace saw the Orphan Trains as a solution because of the number of children who were living
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Their journey west generally took about three to four days and the agents, who were relocating the children, comforted them by singing to them and giving them hand bibles. A lot of brothers and sisters were separated during relocation because they would not all go to the same state, and if they did go to the same state, the foster families would not take in all of them. For children, or anyone for that matter, abandoning somewhere that you know of as home, as well as abandoning your family (if you were not orphaned), has the potential to be traumatizing, and is extremely scary. Even so, the agents comforting them most likely had an immensely positive impact during their journey. When they arrived to the different rural states, they would stand on a stage in front of families where the families would decide which child they wanted based on their appearance and their temperament. This could also be viewed as traumatizing due to children being examined by people that they don’t know and potentially feeling unwanted and not good
In the novel Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline, we witness a relationship develop between Molly, a seventeen year old in the foster care system, and Vivian, a ninety-one year old widow that is looking to clean out her attic. As the book progresses, we see them grow closer through telling stories and bonding over their joint hardships. Kline goes out of her way to illustrate this strengthening friendship through many little hints in the novel.
In the novel Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline, we witness a relationship develop between Molly, a seventeen year old in the foster care system, and Vivian, a ninety-one year old widow that is looking to clean out her attic. As the book progresses, we see them grow closer through telling stories and bonding over their joint hardships. Kline goes out of her way to illustrate this strengthening friendship through many little hints in the novel to where she is ultimately leading the duo.
hard to keep up with. This is an excellent way of creating an image of
Everybody lives one life, but some they live many lives. Vivian Daly, in The Orphan Train by Christina Kline, has lived in numerous homes, had 3 different names, and countless life changing experiences in her many years. Niamh Power, Dorothy Nielsen, and lastly Vivian Daly these different characters vary everything from appearance to religious views. These different names make her who she is in life. Everyone of the names is more than just some letters, the changing of names is the changing of her life, the girl she used to be no longer exists when ever that name no longer exists. Nothing in her life stayed the same so why should her name?
The Underground Railroad was an extremely complex organization whose mission was to free slaves from southern states in the mid-19th century. It was a collaborative organization comprised of white homeowners, freed blacks, captive slaves, or anyone else who would help. This vast network was fragile because it was entirely dependent on the absolute discretion of everyone involved. A slave was the legal property of his owner, so attempting escape or aiding a fugitive slave was illegal and dangerous, for both the slave and the abolitionist. In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass understands that he can only reveal so many details about his escape from servitude, saying, “I deeply regret the necessity that impels
This is where the idea of the Wanstead Orphan Asylum came to Andrew Reid’s mind, he knew that there had to be an Infant Asylum in Wanstead. His main reason for these acts of kindness was because he truly wanted to help the ‘deserving poor’ (this meant poor people that had been made poor by bad fortune or death of parents). In his speech at the founding meeting he said “Innocence, helplessness, and misery are strangely commingled and most touchingly call for our aid”. This shows that he really cares and wants to persuade other people to care and to donate for the orphans to have a better life.
Because of the job opportunities in the West that were advertised throughout the World , many people who found themselves out of place after being freed, or having their livelihood freed, sought to take up shop and make their way to these new opportunities.
Many times the factory owner could get away with paying them nothing at all. The children obviously got little to no education. Many orphans were treated as slaves, they would say that the
The foster care system, then as now was desperate for qualified homes. Kathy and her husband had become certified foster parents, she was a certified teacher, and they had empty beds in their home. Their phone soon bega...
The orphan trains are an unknown time period in American history, where children were taken from urban centers and shipped west in order to start new lives. Many children had one or more parents still living but their parents could not afford to take care of them. Siblings were split up and often never saw one another again. Some children found loving families, but others were abused and treated as slaves. The hardships that the children faced helped shaped laws and regulations for child welfare, labor laws, and adoption laws. It had its biggest impact on the foster care system and how it works today.
In the year 1562, there were laws enacted that allowed the placement of poor children into care services until they were old enough to care for themselves. When the idea came to the U.S. not many children liked the idea of being placed into a foster home. They were often abused and exploited. However, this was allowed by law and the homes were considered better for the children because unlike almshouses children were taught different trades, and were not constantly exposed to bad surrounding and immature adults. Various forms of indenturing children persisted into the first decade of the century. Benjamin Eaton became the nation’s first foster child in the year 1636, he was 7 years old.
The Underground Railroad despite occurring centuries ago continues to be an “enduring and popular thread in the fabric of America’s national historical memory” as Bright puts it. Throughout history, thousands of slaves managed to escape the clutches of slavery by using a system meant to liberate. In Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad, he manages to blend slave narrative and history creating a book that goes beyond literary or historical fiction. Whitehead based his book off a question, “what if the Underground Railroad was a real railroad?” The story follows two runaway slaves, Cora and Caesar, who are pursued by the relentless slave catcher Ridgeway. Their journey on the railroad takes them to new and unfamiliar locations,
Orphans sometimes met another fate… being placed in an educational institution. Many philanthropists donated money to these “schools” for the express purpose of boarding and educating orphans.
Throughout our world, hundreds upon thousands of children are kept in orphanages. These children, who have no home, no parents, and no siblings to play with, are kept in a place where all they have left is their childhood; and even that is taken away from them in these living hells. Most people would define the word orphanage as a public or private institution for the care and protection of children without parents. However, this definition is far from what orphanages actually are. Orphanages do not institute care and protection for the orphans, but instead abuse them and make their lives miserable. But this abuse does not only restrict to physical abuse; mental, emotional, and sexual abuses are also included in their daily lives. With poor and squalid facilities, cribs to sleep in for 11 year olds, minimal food to eat, and inhumane care, these helpless children have no choice but to bear this treatment. Nevertheless, there are orphanages out there that do care for their children. They give them proper food, clothing, and have a clean environment, but still the children are neglected and not given the love and nurturing that they need and deserve. Poor countries like Bulgaria are not capable of giving their orphans the proper environment to live in. The nurses and staff of orphanages are not meeting their responsibilities as proper care-takers either. Orphanages were originally made to give children without parents care and love, but now the meaning and reality of orphanages have changed to a nightmare.
...fortunate. Although orphans could go on to earn adequate livings as adults, becoming an orphan in nineteenth-century England was all too often a sentence for failure. The English government and citizen volunteers attempted to aid the growing number of orphans as the nineteenth century progressed; however, the attempts to improve their unsatisfactory conditions were seldom enough.