Foster Care In Christina Baker Kline's Orphan Train

Orphan Train, written by Christina Baker Kline, is a profoundly emotional tale of a young adolescent girl living in foster care. Molly Ayer is a 17-year-old teenage "orphan" (Kline, 2013). Despite Molly Ayer's mother still being alive; she is not emotionally stable enough to care for her after the loss of her husband in a tragic car accident. Molly Ayer reveals that she feels like an orphan to Vivian Daly, an older woman who shares many of the same experiences Molly has gone through in foster care. They are able to make a meaningful connection almost immediately despite their lack of willingness to open up to strangers. Although Orphan Train discusses many significant topics such as immigration, discrimination, being a young woman on your own, etc., the topic that moved me the most in this novel was foster care. Foster care has always been a contentious issue in this country and in most civilized countries around the

world. Children are the most vulnerable demographic in any society and especially so when they do not have parents capable or available to care for them. Molly Ayer lost her father to a tragic car accident and her mother to emotional instability. Vivian Daly lost her family to a tragic house fire. They then became the responsibility of the state and the ever-changing foster parents who welcomed them into their homes. To better understand what Molly and Vivian experienced I researched academic journals on foster care. What the research shows is just how profound stigmatization of foster care can be on everyone involved, the academic and cognitive setbacks bad foster care can produce and the overwhelming evidence on just how successful kinship foster care can be.
The stigmatization surrounding anything that has to do with foster care does not do anyone any favors. Children brought up in the foster care system are often looked down on by most of society because of "negative stereotypes" (Freeman, Holzinger & Mitchell, 2012). Orphan Train does a great job of illustrating this "phenomenon" (Freeman, Holzinger & Mitchell, 2012). Dina, Molly Ayers most recent foster care parent, never truly allowed herself to see Molly as a human being, instead she is constantly assuming Molly is up to no good. Another example of this in the book is the incident that leads Molly to Vivian. Molly decides to steal Jane Eyre from her public library. The woman at the front desk immediately assumes Molly is up to something despite any lack of evidence. As soon as the theft alarm goes off, her unfounded suspicions are unfortunately proven correct. This phenomenon in reality tends to become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" (Freeman, Holzinger & Mitchell, 2012). Children are very susceptible to learning negative things from adults because they have no references to do so otherwise. Molly Ayers grows up always having to defend herself from false accusations so much that at some point in her life "so many things have gone wrong for her in her seventeen years that she's come to expect it" (Kline, 2013). That learned behavior of just giving up or even worse, accepting the stereotypes about you from seemingly the entire world is dangerous. If a child is made to believe they are worthless, they lose motivation to move forward and someday leave the foster care system a capable adult. Research shows that just a few people make a difference in a foster care child's life. People like Jack, Vivian and even Ralph counteract the negativity Molly receives from everyone else. Removing the stigmatization from foster care is not as difficult as one might think. Perspective is everything. Things like tobacco, certain controlled substances and baseball are not as prevalent as they once were because times change and people adapt. Foster care needs a better public relations team because there are still to this day many people who assume the worst when they hear the words foster care.
A common stereotype of foster care children and one Molly Ayer has "internalized" is that they are inherently bad and unable to learn at the same level of their peers (Kodak, 2012). Molly hides behind her goth make-up and tough demeanor because she is afraid of opening up to strangers who may not always be around. That kind of insecurity could potentially lead to underperforming academically. She, by all accounts, is a smart, witty adolescent girl is introduced by the author stealing a Charlotte Bronte novel written in the 19th century. Molly feels she has no other option but to steal. Molly thinks about the few possessions she has like"the charms" and comes to the conclusion that these things "are all she has left of what used to be her life (Kline, 2013). But in fact, material things are not the only thing Molly, Vivian or any other foster care child have. Children growing up in the foster care system have it a lot tougher than their peers who live at home with both parents. The practical "obstacles" like books, clothing, food, etc. are all obstacles that foster care children have to overcome (Kodak, 2012). The more problematic obstacles foster care children face are "mental, emotional and cognitive" (Kline, 2013). Children like Molly and Vivian have a tough time growing up because of the lack of emotional support and nurturing they receive from their foster care parents. A child's confidence is incredibly important. Foster care children are "not inherently less" capable of learning but if they are going home to people who do not believe in them and give them the moral support that their peers receive, they do tend to "fall behind" (Kline, 2013). It is not that foster care children do not have the inherent skills necessary to become self-sufficient adults and contributing citizens but that many are denied the basic needs that create a foundation for children to succeed. Environment is a great "predictor of intelligence" and broken homes exist in and out of the foster care system (Kline, 2013). But children who already feel isolated because of the loss of their biological parents tend to need to be reassured they are important. When they are denied that, they internalize it as they are not good enough and it transfers into their education, professional aspirations and morality.
One of the saddest lines from the entire book Orphan Train is when Molly says "it's easier to assume that people have it out for you than to be disappointed when they don't come through." This can be attributed to many things in life but especially to foster care. Foster care parents usually are not in any way related to the children they look after. A common stereotype of foster care parents is of someone who "benefits financially" from foster care and loses sight of what taking care of a needy child should be about (Barth, Berrick & Duerr, 1994). One solution to the idea that foster care parents are not always interested in the best interest of the child is kinship foster care. Kinship foster care is the placing of a child whose biological parents are no longer able to care for them up to the standards set by the state into a "family member's household" (Barth, Berrick & Duerr, 1994). That family member can be anyone from a grandparent to an aunt or uncle. Research shows that "biological relatives" are more likely to be kinder and empathetic to each other than complete strangers (Barth, Berrick & Duerr, 1994). This is not always the case but there is a greater imperative for biological relatives to care for one another given they share similar "DNA" (Barth, Berrick & Duerr, 1994). Vivian Daly experiences the opposite of this when she is confronted with the reality that her closest family members are all gone after the fire. She is unable to communicate with anyone back in her native country and accepts the reality that she will have to grow up in a foreign country on her own at a very young age. If the concept of kinship foster care were popular in New York City during the time when Vivian became an orphan, she might have had the opportunity to reunite with her grandmother back in Ireland. All of this is to say, family is a resource that is incredibly powerful and reliable. Children that are placed in kinship foster care tend to feel more safe and less anxious. The connection between their foster care parents and their biological parents is also biological and therefore might give hope to foster care children that they may one day be reunited with their parents or at least never lose contact.
The foster care system is not perfect but for some children, it is all they have.

There are many areas of foster care that should be reevaluated and/or terminated. Kinship foster care is an idea that should be more widespread and could be improved by incentivizing family members of displaced children. Money is a controversial incentive for foster care parents and can sometimes corrupt the most well-intentioned of people but student loans and stipends specifically for educational purposes could alleviate the financial burden foster care parents feel without given them a blank check. Social programs like community sports and/or internships can be a way of freeing up foster care parents and helping displaced children gain experience contributing to their communities. Molly Ayer was forced into community service and gained a lifelong friendship. Imagine she could have forgone the stealing of Jane Eyre from the library and gotten the same life changing experience volunteering through a program specifically dedicated on her needs and

interests.

REFERENCES
Barth, Richard P., Berrick, Jill Duerr & Needle, Barbara. 1994. A Comparison of Kinship Foster Homes and Foster Family Homes: Implications for Kinship Foster Care as Family Preservation. Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 16, Issues 1-2, pp. 33-63.

Freeman, F.N., Holzinger, K. J. & Mitchell, B.C. 2012. The Influence of Environment on the Intelligence, School Achievement, and Conduct of Foster Children. Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Volume 1, pp. 102-217.

Kodak, Marie. 2012. Children in Foster Homes: A Study of Mental Development. Studies in Child Welfare, Volume 16, Issue 1, pp. 7-12.

Kline, Christina Baker. 2013. Orphan Train. William Morrow, Harper Collins Publishers, New York.

Skills, H.M. 2012. Mental Development of Children in Foster Homes. Journal of Consulting Psychology, Volume 2, Issue 2, pp. 33-43.