The reading Recitatif by Toni Morrison gives some background into what life inside an Orphanage is like. Orphanages came about in the early 1800s. This reading was published post Great Depression when the orphanages were filled with neglected children. “The number of dependent or neglected children in the depths of the Great Depression, approximately 144,000, then at any time before or since.” Many people don’t even realize the amount of children this would be. After this the Adoptions Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 came to be about. This act helped make sending a child into an orphanage a last priority. The social workers did so by exploring all possible resources to try to give children the least restrictive atmosphere possible.
Technically there are not orphanages still around today and there are three different routes you can take when going through this process; being adopted from a foster car system, as an infant as a private adoption or as a relative or step child of the adoptive parents. However, there are still orphanages opened worldwide. In 1997 the Adoption and Safe Families Act came about to create a time limit that children were allowed to stay in foster care before they were adopted. The goal of this was to find children a safe home even quicker than before. COVID-19 has made the amount of children going into foster care increased rapidly. There is a foster care placement crisis in the state that is used to compound the on going issue. The issue fluctuates in size due to what may be occurring in the world at that given moment.
In the reading, Recitatif, these two girls become from completely different backgrounds and meet in their orphanage. They become extremely close despite their different stereotype groups that they fall into. Many people do not know what the life living in an orphanage is. This story just gives a little insight into what it may be and how people end up there.
1980s “Where is home”. UMBC. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://socialwork.umbc.edu/contact-us/reflections/1980s-where-is-home/.
A brief history of foster care in the United States. CASA of Travis County. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://www.casatravis.org/a_brief_history_of_foster_care_in_the_united_states.
American Adoptions, I. (n.d.). Do orphanages still exist in America? American Adoptions – Orphanages in America – Do They Still Exist? Retrieved September 20, 2021, from https://www.americanadoptions.com/adoption/do-orphanages-still-exist.
I actually didn’t know that orphanages don’t exist anymore in the United States. That right there shows how uneducated I am about the experiences of children without parents. I am now excited to learn more from Recitatif because it seems odd that I would be so in the dark about the experiences of over 144,000 children.
Hi! Great job connecting this context presentation to what we are currently going through. It helps to put this into perspective and gain a sort of closeness with Morrison and her characters, to have that connection. I think this topic is often skimmed over, or not truly discussed in depth. We tend to somewhat glorify being orphaned in popular media, thinking that it relates to tortured genius like in “The Queen’s Gambit”, or a morbid sense of adventure, like “The Mysterious Benedict Society” or “A Serious of Unfortunate Events”. Gaining this insight helps me to truly put myself in the place of these characters and understand how their trauma bonded them. Great job on this post.
You did a great job tying in this week’s reading to other things going on in the world. I think this incite into what orphanages were like and where they started in the United States helped connect us to Twyla’s and Roberta’s characters. I think it’s important that you highlighted the current reality of the foster care system. I actually didn’t know that we don’t have orphanages in the United States anymore.
It is great to see that we as a society have realized orphanages are not a healthy place for children to grow up. We can clearly see many things wrong with orphanages in the recitatif story. It is also interesting that we hear very little about the problems cover has caused putting children into foster care and I’m curious why the problem of children in foster care isn’t talked about more as a society.
This context presentation is thorough and full of great information. I am shocked to learn that orphanages are not prevalent anymore. I guess this is somewhat of a good thing since there were a lot of negative backlash when it came to orphanages. I can not even imagine what it is like to live in an orphanage. I am glad that Ratliff made this reading when it comes to life in an orphanage. This can bring insight to those who do not understand and can make us more appreciative to have someone take care of us.
Good post, you did great job in connecting the reading of this week to the modern contemporary issue. Spivak in the reading is showing us the issues the orphanage had through Twyla, Roberta, and gar girls’ characters. Now the orphanages do not exist in the US in the goal of unifying children with families who can provide the appropriate level of care. I think closing orphanages and converting to foster care system has helped to get better care to orphans and provided opportunities to learn and grow. But foster care system has equally important issues to talk about too.
Thaknk you for providing the information about life in an Orphanage, and what’s the situation now. I realized that orphanage can make children with different backgrounds to live together, which made the story appear. But in orphanage, the environment made the kids to experience a lot of bad things. I think there were still some orphanages in some poor countries now, but I’m really happy that there are different ways for these kids to be adopted. The dvelopment of the economics and society policies helped those kids. However, I still think that we need to spend more attention on these kids.
This is a wonderful post, you perfectly combine the reading this week and recent social issues. It gives me a good conclusion about this week’s reading and introduced some background about orphanages. “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison truly draw a picture to me about life in the orphanage and how those children treat each other there. And this post contends more information like the orphanage’s situation and laws about it nowadays. I have no idea about orphanages life and America doesn’t have orphanages anymore at now before I read this post, thanks!
I had no idea that orphanages no longer existed. I feel like movies and television had led me to believe that orphanages were still a big thing. I think it is really interesting to connect modern day practices for orphaned children to what it was like during great depression times. There is definitely a huge contrast, and I think the system has most definitely changed for the better.
Tracking the history of orphanages and orphans within the United States paints an extremely interesting picture of the country and its social history. The American social climate is often best portrayed through who it leaves behind and this is evident within both the story and your research. The context linking orphanages to the foster care system further exposes the holes in the system.
This is a great post. Good job at linking the background and some laws with the orphanages topic. From your context research, I have more understanding of the “Rectatif” story plot and the reasoning behind the two girls’ personalities and their actions. I never notice the problems of foster care and this post initiates me to care more about foster care topics in the social justice field.
This is such an interesting fact because I’ve always wondered when the organization to foster children started and how it came about. I think this system has made it possible and easier for children to find a new family because like you mentioned many places outside the U.S still have orphanages. It’s also very important how you mentioned Covid causing more children to enter this system do you possible know what factors might have contributed to this increase?
What a fascinating read, thank you for that. It’s interesting to me that we have opted to remove orphanages altogether, but I think an argument could be made that many modern foster homes, especially those with multiple children, could be considered a simple rebranding. Additionally, I can’t help but wonder — is this a Western occurrence, the removal of orphanages? As I read Morrison’s piece, I will certainly be taking this into consideration. The background knowledge will be quite useful!
Interesting. I did not know that orphanages do not exist in America. I find that to be very interesting! But, after reading this story, it did enlighten me that there were a lot of things wrong with orphanages. For instance, there was a lot of bullying taking place within it, yet none of the adults did anything but tried to separate the older girls from the younger ones. I do wonder, however, that maybe, back in the 1800s, that orphanages worked best. Because we live in a more modern society, orphanages probably do not work as well, or as it was intended to back in the 1800s.
I love that you connected this weeks reading with issues that are prevalent in todays society that are commonly overlooked. It was interesting to read the experiences the orphanages brought the two girls. I had not realized we had gotten rid of orphanages all together in the US, and part of me can’t help but wonder if that is the best idea with the current issues in the current foster care system. I have heard many stories of families that opt to foster children solely for the check that the government provides them. Instead of actually caring for the children, they use the money for things that they want and do not take adequate care of the children. Is that better than an orphanage? If we updated regulations for orphanages and spent more money and energy in providing a safe place for children to live until they can be adopted or ensured a safe, loving home. I can see both sides but it does make me wonder which way is better.
I had no clue that orphanages do not exist in America anymore. I am curious about how effective the new system is though. I feel like in underprivileged areas with less funding, some children still have to fall through the cracks of the system? I am also curious as to what exactly foster care looks like in this system? Is it a combination of religious charities and organizations that look after this system? Although I do believe that it is almost completely better to wipe away the discouraging system of orphanages, do some children find themselves continually being moved through different parts of the system to find adoption?
I had no idea orphanages don’t exist in the US anymore so I hope that foster care systems are better for the children than orphanages. It is unsettling to know that many children do not have homes or parents. I never came across this information on the news. It really feels bad to know that there are problems like this that still exist.
I loved your context presentation because it was able to highlight a problem that was increased by Covid-19 that most people didn’t think about. Some people focused more on the unemployment aspect or the way small businesses struggled to survive. Children were flooded into the foster care system at record highs for many reasons such as financial problems or simply because their guardians could no longer appropriately care for them. This caused many emergency placements or placing children in unsafe situations that weren’t vetted properly. Dealing with children is a delicate process and rushing their adoptions or placements could end up harming them in the long run.
This post was surprisingly new to me. I was completely unaware that there are no longer orphanages in the United States! I do hope that the alternative, Foster Care, is better for those involved. I really wish that this type of information would appear in the news more so that others could also be more informed!
Hi, thank you for your educational presentation. I did not know that orphanages no longer exist. That is such a relief that children are being provided with the proper resources in a challenging society. I loved how you tied in all of this information up to our current society in with “Recitatif.” Hopefully one day, children will no longer have to deal with these problems of abandonment.
I did not know that orphanages started in the 1800s, I always assumed that they started in the 1900s. From what I remember, in high school History class my teacher talked about how orphanages are extremely “depressing” and that the children there are not treated very well. I always knew that there was more options than just orphanages to adopt, this informed me that there is a lot of different routes to go for adoption.
While reading Recitatif, I was a bit confused about what was going on as far as where the girls where and why they were there. This gave me insight into that idea and I now understand that many children couldn’t be cared for during the Great Depression and therefore were put in orphanages.