Lamont's 'Training School For Girls'

Overview

The story focuses on Shirley Wilder and her experiences with the system and then her son, Lamont’s life as well. Shirley Wilder was born in 1959 to Helen Wilder and Jay All. In the story, her parents had a very unhealthy relationship consisting of a lot of violence and alcohol consumption. After a tragic death of Helen from tuberculosis, five-year-old Shirley was to be taken care of by her sixty-five year old grandmother and later her father and step mother. Another big part of the story was that Shirley suffered from behavioral problems and ran away often to avoid beatings when living with her father and stepmother—both of whom seem not to care. Later in the story Shirley’s father turns the stepmother over to the court. The outcome

from the courts is that Shirley was to undergo treatment this was suppose to help her feelings of abandonment; however, she was often between relatives, shelters, etc. After jumping from place to place the only institution to accept her was Training School for Girls in Hudson, New York. Shirley’s life took a continuous decline after this. As for her son Lamont, his life in the system began as an infant. Alicia and Frantz Fils-Aime were his foster parents for the first five years of life—Alicia had hoped to adopt Lamont; however, the marriage broke up and she had to hand him over to the state. Afterwards a family in Minnesota adopted Lamont and because of the move Lamont had behavioral problems and the family gave him up before the adoption was final. The same situation happened again; however, this family sent Lamont to a psychiatric hospital. Similar to Shirley, Lamont’s life also took a plunge as well. As for the main focus of what the story is actually about, which are Shirley and Lamont’s experiences and the Wilder Lawsuit. The lawsuit involved Shirley Wilder, who represented the New York City foster children. Marcia Lowry filed the lawsuit in order to reveal what happens in the foster car system. By the end of the book you are hoping that Lowry is going to make a change and the courts will rule to change the system to help the children; however, by 1989 too much time had seems to go by to make such a difference.
Social Institutions and Organizations
Some of the social institutions and organizations that affect children in this story include Training School for Girls, Holy Cross as well as foster care.

One social institution that affects children in this story is the Training School for Girls. This was the only place that would accept Shirley at one point in the story. This is the part of the story where she was accepted into “the racket” a group of lesbian girls at the school—in order to be initiated she was raped with a broomstick. Also at this social institution if Shirley ever acted out, they would put her in solitary confinement, which made her run away, and because she ran away the authorities diagnosed her with Personality Disorder. Overall, this social institution seems to be very disempowering and oppressive to children, especially Shirley. Instead of seeing Shirley’s attempts to run away as being scared and needing to get away, they classified her as having a mental disorder. As for Lamont some of the social institutions he was involved in include, a psychiatric hospital, foster homes, the Astor Home, and a home in the Bronx. Lamont was in the Astor home from around age seven until his teens. By the time he had reached his teens, Lamont found himself in the same situation his mother had been in, diagnosed with psychiatric diagnoses. When he outgrew the Astor Home Lamont was sent to a home in the Bronx, where he was a troubled teen and his ex-girlfriend gave birth to his son. Lamont has described some of the

places he had been as scary. With Lamont’s situation the places he had been are disempowering to children because you would expect Lamont’s experience to be different then Shirley, he is a generation after her; however, the outcome was exactly the same, no improvement. Yet another child, Lamont’s son will probably end up in the system.
Child Advocates
Mention another child advocate
Section 3 – Child Advocates: What individuals mentioned in the book emerge as child advocates? What actions did they take to partner with—or on behalf of—children?

One individual that was mentioned in the book the emerged as a child advocate the most was Marcia Lowry. Marcia Lowry is the women who flied the lawsuit for the Wilder case. She found that because the foster care had religious affiliations that a lot of the time black protestant children were receiving what ever care was left over from the catholic white children had. Marcia Lowry chose Shirley Wilder to be her plaintiff in her lawsuit against the system in New York City. Her goal was to fix the welfare system and make a difference for the children. Unfortunately, by the time the case was ended too much time had passed by and the issue was not relevant anymore. By this time, there were more children of color in the system. Although, the system still was not the good, children were still psychologically traumatized by their experiences in the system. I would say over all Lowry’s actions were filing the lawsuit and she worked with the children, specifically Shirley Wilder. Another child advocate that arises in the book is BLAH BLAH. Although a less significant role of a child advocate,…

Concluding Thoughts

Overall the book had an interesting story, and pertained very much to this course.

It was a long book; however, an easy read and it did flow together very nicely. However, the book was not my “cup of tea”, it did contain a lot of super interesting parts to me personally. To be whole-heartedly honest, I tend to like fiction books like J.R.R Tolkien stories; I am also a sucker for love stories, specifically Jane Austen as well. Additionally, I was upset by the anticlimactic part at the end where Lowry really was unable to make a difference. The Lost Children of the Wilder says that society’s treatment of children can be very poor; however, a lot of times children need the voice of child advocates to give them a voice—especially those more vulnerable children. The social institutions specifically were very poor to the children. I think that often, similar to the story, some adults often forget to put the child first. For example some of the social institutions just assumed things about children and did not really consider other options. Furthermore, some of the most palpable moments for me included Shirley’s experiences at the training School for Girls; specifically with the group of lesbians she was involved with, like her initiation and such. I also was just beside myself when Shirley had her son Lamont and later when it came full circle and Lamont had impregnated his ex-girlfriend. Overall, the book was a good book and I would recommend it to other CHAD certificate or

majors.