OPINION: TASTE

JANUARY 14, 2010, 10:27 P.M. ET

The Best Thing About Orphanages:

By RICHARD B. MCKENZIE

Posted and Emailed Comments from Readers of the Column1

Comments on the WSJ web site for the above column:
Krishnan Chittur wrote: It is wonderful to read about good news stories - if only the political class were to listen and allow solutions to be crafted that would help the many thousands in our own country. I have no doubt that by far the majority of those that take in kids temporarily are well meaning, but there are also horror stories. I hope stories like these remind us all that we cannot be stuck to some idea and refuse to look at alternative solutions. If indeed orphanages do as good a job as foster care (perhaps better), it is time to support such ideas. There is no lack of kindness or caring and I imagine people will continue to step up to help - but let's do whatever else we can to make sure that no child gets left behind because of some failing ideology.

John Casapiedra wrote: I was in a Roman Catholic orphanage in the 1940's before being sent to some foster homes. Although not always perfect my life in the orphanage was blissful compared to the living hell of the foster home system I found myself in after that. The foster homes
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The posted column and comments on the WSJ web page were accessed on January 30, 2010 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703510304574626080835477074.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#arti cleTabs_comments.

were run by indifferent and at times terrible abusive Fagans who profited from taking in foster children. Because of my exposure to both systems in my childhood I have always believed as an adult that closing down the orphanages was a terrible mistake. I was protected in the orphanage. Bring back the orphanages.

Anthony Lewkowski wrote: I was in a Catholic orphanage in the 40's followed by foster care in the 50s. When the foster care didn't work, I was placed in group homes for teenage boys. I concur with John, and am an advocate of the orphanage system. I believe the orphanage model of the 40's could be improved if implemented today. For instance, many people in the [surrounding] community could volunteer spare time to work with these kids. In the orphanage of the past the kids had little contact with caring adults; the nuns and staff were too busy to provide individual attention.

Barb Harwood wrote: I, too, was thrilled to see this article. A few years ago I mentored a 26-year old woman who had been sent to Wisconsin from Georgia at the age of 7 to spend the next 11 years being shuttled from one foster care home to the next. To complicate things, she has cerebral palsy. Her experience is heart-breaking, if not infuriating. Had she been allowed to grow up in an orphanage, with consistent medical care and therapy and an education that would have profited her brilliant mind, I believe she would be a different person today and not living as I found her: in public housing with no purpose for her life and harboring much anger toward the system that "managed" her. When I tell people that I think we should bring back orphanages, they look at me as if I've said the most politically incorrect thing possible. I point out that orphanages can often be much better than life with the biological family. I mentored another girl, 17years old, who, along with her sibling, was sexually abused beginning at age 3 by the male "friends" of her mother. I met her when I was serving on the board of a publicly run group home. After three years of my serving on the board of the group home, and watching the herculean effort the system puts forth to "keep families together," I became even more convinced that orphanages had to be better than life with a hyperdysfunctional, if not downright sick, family.

Jane Landers wrote: I am glad to see this subject addressed with candor and care. Back in the 1980's I had an opportunity to observe foster homes and the children placed there in Rhode Island. Some

homes were wonderful. Others were nightmarish. The in-between homes were not ideal, with kids left in front of the TV, or used as household help. One particularly sad case involved years of sexual abuse of a child, unheeded by the so-called "social workers" employed to make sure all waa well. I also worked with women in prison, and was struck by the sad truth that while drugaddicted women wanted to reunite with their children, years passed by and the children grew up without the consistancy of a reliable family situation. It's really nice to think that children are better off with loving biological parents, but not all parents are capable of providing love and security. We spend a lot of money on welfare, section 8, medicaid, food stamps and other programs, many of which are intended to provide family stability for children. I understand that families oten face short-term crisis and we should, as a society, help them through that sort of thing. But with chronic situations, I would prefer to see much of the money we spend go to places intended solely for the purpose of nurturing children. Handing money to dysfunctional parents is often a bad deal for the kids and for society as a whole.

Ben Davis wrote: I appreciate Dr. McKenzie's recent article in the Wall Street Journal and his continuing promotion of orphanages and childrens homes. His comment on the view that children are always better off in loving and safe biological families is one that none of us in this business argues with. But, as he so eloquently points out, that is not and can not be the case for many children of dysfunctional homes, and, therefore, there is a need for good, positive out-of-home placement facilities such as the kind we and others provide. As to his thoughts that orphanages are way too expensive, that's right. We do want high quality care for children who have had almost nothing before entering our programs. The difference in Connie Maxwell Children's Home in Greenwood, SC and most state or other similarly-funded programs, however, is that the high expenses arent passed on by us to our users. We dont require a fee from the families or from the state custodians that comes anywhere near our cost of operations. We never have turned down a child because there was no money stream coming with them. The monies we collect from parent or custodian gifts amounts to about 1% of our operating budget and the DSS board payments total about 6%. We receive no other federal or state dollars, so it should not matter to the state or to clients what our expenses are. We fortunately have a base of financial support that allows us to provide scholarships for kids in need without asking users to pay the necessary costs for our services. I am thankful that Dr. McKenzie remains the voice crying in the wilderness to espouse our cause and to let policy makers and others know that there is a place for our kinds of programs. We dont propose to be considered as the only solution, but we should be a

viable option and thought of as one of the tools in the toolbox. Dr. Ben Davis President/CEO Connie Maxwell Childrens Home Greenwood, SC www.conniemaxwell.com

Katherine Haines wrote: For over a year, I have been a social worker on an inpatient psychiatric unit for children and adolescents. In the particular hospital I work in, the majority of the children have state involvement, live with relatives, or are in foster homes. Nearly every child who comes in with aggressive behavior calms down as soon as they are admitted to the unit. They relax knowing that they are in a safe place and they thrive under the structure and care. Their relatives may be well intentioned but are not necessarily loving, mature, or well equipped to raise a child. I would absolutely support a return to orphanages and would suggest that it is fiscally possible if bureaucrats like Hillary Clinton allowed

Diane Fallon wrote: It is refreshing to read comments from people who actually know what they're talking about as opposed to the "professionals" who think they know what they're talking about. The "orphanage deniers" aren't unbiased in their opinions. They are part of the foster system they promote and work in. Let's be honest. Foster care isn't a family. It's a system, and the kids aren't so much members of families as they are "systems kids," where many of them go from home to home until they reach 18. I met one of these kids a few months ago and she'd been in 8 foster homes by the time she turned 18 and was then "released" from the system to fend for herself. I wish she'd had the opportunity to grow up in Seamark Ranch in Florida, or Crossnore in North Carolina, or Happy Hill Farm and Academy in Texas, or The Connie Maxwell Children's Home in South Carolina. or any of the many places across the country which provide alternative living situations to institutional foster care. Although I don't think their opinions would change, it's obvious the two doctors and the professor haven't read McKenzie's books or articles or seen his documentary on orphanages, They are part of the problem. They need to move into the 21st Century and become part of the solution. professionals to focus on the patient/child and not on the paperwork.

JoAnn Wilboum wrote: I read with much interest this article on orphanages and it amazed me that these had been my thoughts for so long and I often wondered why it had not been stated before. I grew up in an orphanage in Nashville in the 50's and while it wasn't perfect, it provided me with stability, security and a place of belonging. The children there were like family and I am still in touch with some of them. While I was there, they tried the foster home idea with several of the children and it seldom worked. They ended up coming back to the home feeling rejected and depressed. I NEVER wanted to be in a foster home and neither did most of the children there. We had our family-however big it was!!! The reason why some families want to take in foster children are for all the wrong reasons. There is an article in the Nashville Tennessean this morning about a 12 month old baby who died at the hands of a foster care couple...every day you read about this happening and it is so sad. Our state and federal government spends millions of dollars on welfare payments to foster parents and very little, if any, supporting faith based chilren's homes. Yes, I would have loved having a mother and father that wanted to give me a loving and secure family environment, but that wasn't possible and I will always be grateful for the home where I grew up and everything I learned while I was there.

Emailed responses received about the column (with identities of writers not included for obvious reasons):

I just read "The Best Thing About Orphanages" in the WSJ and am writing to you to tell you about a woman I knew, a woman raised in an orphanage. Shirl - Shirley Kane Melnoski Kesner - worked at a desk four feet away from me for nearly ten years until about two months before she died at the age of 87. I work in a government office in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, a small village in Westchester County just north of New York City. Shirley was my assistant, although as I always told people, Shirley did not have a boss. What follows is what she told me in bits and pieces. There are gaps, and my recollections may not be 100% accurate, but it's how I remember her.

Shirley was born to middle class parents in Hell's Kitchen in NYC. Her father was an accountant who died when she was a child, I believe from a burst appendix. Her mother couldn't carry on, and one day ended it all by sticking her head in a gas oven, leaving ten year old Shirley and her older sister behind. Shirley's grandmother couldn't cope, either - "I hope she's on a spit in hell" was an oft-repeated remark - and put the girls in an orphanage, the Graham School, located on the southern border of Hastings near Yonkers. The children learned to cook, to clean, and to make their own clothes. Shirley attended Hastings' schools, walking several miles back and forth twice a day - the children came back to the orphanage for lunch "except when it was snowing and then sometimes they gave us a ride." But despite this seemingly harsh life, she spoke of the place with nothing but fondness, saving her warmest words of praise for the kind gentleman who was the director. Apparently children could not live at the orphanage beyond their 18th birthday, and she turned 18 during her senior year of high school. So she found a place with a family in Hastings, who used her as nothing short of a slave. She did all the housework, cleaning, and cooking, even preparing dinner parties, all while she was finishing high school. She married soon after and had three children in quick succession, after which she said no more children. She was a fine swimmer, often in the Hudson River adjacent to our village, where her husband taught her to build boats and sail. She described her house on Ridge Street, a street filled with eastern European immigrants like her husband, as filled with noise and children. It was also the site of a horrific occurrence: a gas main explosion on a frigid Christmas night that destroyed several other homes as well. Her marriage was not happy, however, and a divorce ensued. But she never spoke negatively about her former husband, always referring to him with great dignity as "the children's father." Shirley had a second chance at love at age 50 when she met a man she adored until the day he died twenty years later. Bob Kesner was an educated man with wide-ranging interests, and he broadened Shirley's world immensely. They worked together on a local newspaper, they went birding, they took cruises. Part of her died with him. But she kept on, working as she had done for much of her life. She had a part-time job in the local library, and then came over to our building to be the assistant to the village clerk. She greeted the public, answered the phones, collected taxes, issued dog, hunting and fishing licenses, and handled parking permits, with an attention to detail and conscientiousness that I have rarely seen. Shirley had great pride in her appearance - I think she was a "babe" back in the day with her red hair and great figure. She was white- haired by the time I knew her. That hair was always perfectly coiffed with her weekly appointments at the hairdresser. And her hands were beautifully manicured as well. She was never without earrings, necklace and rings. Nothing expensive or fancy, but she always looked great. Shirley walked back and forth to work until that last winter, when I would pick her up every morning. But God forbid I should try to hold onto her arm as she negotiated the snow and ice. Shirley was the most fiercely independent woman I ever knew, in every way. She was slowing down and we would encourage her to quit. "Why?" she would say. "What would I do? Hang out with those old ladies?" So she worked until she couldn't. Two weeks later she was hospitalized. Some of us women went to see her near the end. She knew we were there but

couldn't talk much. I was telling someone about an elderly gentleman she had helped get a tax reduction on his house, but I couldn't remember his name. "Nick, Nick something," I said. Shirl opened one eye, "Perih," she said. And then she smiled, and we kissed her goodbye, and she raised one hand in a small wave as we left the room. Well, thanks for letting me honor the memory of a woman I loved and her simple, but remarkable, life. Thank you for your article noted above. I am woefully ignorant about the topic of orphanages: the information your provided helps me be less ignorant, and the data you cite is uplifting to someone as ignorant as I. Again, thank you. I would like to respond to your article about orphanages, in the January 15 Wall Street Journal. I am writing to you personally, rather than to the paper, because I don't know a good solution to the problem of orphans in our world today. Looking at the problem from a different place on the elephant, I share many of your concerns and even more. My husband and I, knowing next to nothing about foster care, took in a 14month-old foster baby in 1983. In those days, adoption through foster was discouraged, but we were able to eventually adopt this child. We adopted another infant from foster care in 1996. In 1993, we took early retirement and began a non-profit called Help One Child in Santa Clara County, to recruit foster families in the faith community who would commit to adopting their foster child, or a set of siblings, if the court severed the biological parents' rights. Across the country, hundreds of families have done just that, since President Clinton opened the door to promote more adoptions in 1995. To know whether a model is working, one needs to follow it down the road until the children are adults and well beyond 18. This has been a painful lesson in our family and in the Help One Child family of families. The old orphanages seem to have worked quite well, but it is premature to assume that orphanages today would be as successful. Or that a loving, stable permanent home will be successful. The reason a child is in foster care has everything to do with the child's outcome. Sometimes I wonder if there can be such a thing as success with the children I see....they are so badly mangled. Orphans today are more damaged than orphans were in the day of orphan trains and faith-based orphanages. The vast majority of foster children have been exposed to alcohol/drugs in utero;

and with drugs and alcohol come domestic violence, sexual abuse, all kinds of abuse, gross negligence and abandonment. Dr. Alan Schor (renowned neuroscientist at UCLA) says that by the time an infant is 7 months old, he has determined whether or not the world is safe and whether he is good or bad. The children I see have terror so wired into their brains that getting them to trust a new parent or anyone else is next to impossible. Dr. Schor also says that neglect is worse than abuse, that that if an infant is neglected he is most definitely wired to believe he is worthless. Turning these early belief patterns around is not impossible, but it is far more difficult than most would believe. There is also the problem of education. If a child has been exposed to alcohol or drugs before birth, learning disabilities make learning much more difficult, and impossible for some. Then there is the problem of the United Nations' Treaty on the Rights of the Child. The orphanages of the past did not have to deal with government scrutiny and children's rights. I cannot speak for every state, but I can speak for California. While our country has not yet signed on to the Treaty on the Rights of the Child, California courts abide by the treaty. This means that mistreated children have to be smart enough to parent themselves, which of course they are not. The Rights of the Child says that children have a right to association with whomever they please, a right to have their opinions considered, a right to all forms of the media, a right to practice any religion they please, a right to express themselves as they choose, and a right to privacy, among other rights. It is difficult to take a child with distorted thinking about himself and the world to a place of health when you have to honor all these rights. In California, the therapy given our adopted children has taken a new turn in the last ten years, as wary therapists are afraid of allegations made by the child, even when the therapists insist that at least one parent is always present in therapy sessions. The newer therapies are based on not giving the child consequences for bad behavior, but rather stepping up the expressions of love and empathy. The hottest speaker on the training circuit is Heather Forbes who trains adoptive parents in "Beyond Consequences." As a parent, I have to wonder when a child is to learn that the world is full of consequences. There is also the concern about the huge number of children being adopted by Americans from orphanages the world over. These orphanages seem to vary in quality, depending on the value each country puts on its children. Consider the Ukraine that doesn't seem to value them much at all. While there is faith-based work going on with Ukrainian orphans, the government has taken very poor care of its own. One American non-profit, Orphan Baby, has pictures of children so malnourished in a particular Ukrainian orphanage that the workers there refrain from giving some children food because it is a waste: "they are going to die anyway." Help One Child has a monthly training by specialists in adoption, with over 200 families participating. Nearly half of these families have adopted internationally. The problems these

children have are identical to the problems we see in American foster children. Early trauma, drugs, and alcohol all play out the same way, the world around. When you talk about the cost of care, I think you are only speaking about the cost of care until these children are grown. If someone smarter than I doesn't come up with some very good solutions to these problems, the social cost in terms of crime, homelessness, health problems, second-third-fourth generation foster care, etc. will be never ending. I appreciate your article. Few people speak out on behalf of orphans; they are poorly understood by most; and our government has spent countless millions of dollars on providing them very poor care. I hope more people will notice. Blessings to you, Enjoyed your article in the WSJ. I am curious if you have done any research on children who were educated in residential schools (boarding schools as the Brits call them). Having grown up in India and exposed to the British way of thinking, it was considered very proper for parents to send their children at ages as young as 6 to boarding schools. I have spent a few years at a boarding school and for the most part cannot share any positive attributes of parents sending their children away and being brought up by surrogate adults. There are circumstances when boarding schools were the only option - for example, when the breadwinner in the family had to work in areas where local schools were not adequate. But for the British and upper class Indians, boarding school was and probably still is an appropriate institution for a growing child. I am interested in any comments you may have. I am preparing research for a mini-documentary which profiles organizations that are examples of todays successful childrens home models. Essentially our story would pick-up where your article last week in the WSJ leaves off. The goal is to raise awareness of stories behind organizations like The Crossnore School and Happy Hills Farm, which hopefully can fuel more direct support as well as inspire replication in other areas of the country.

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I would like to inquire if you would be interested in participating, and if you would be available for discussion and insight. If you have time I would love to schedule a call to explore how your research and personal story may play a role in this expos. I read your review of orphanages in the WSJ. I am a physician practicing Nephrology and Geriatrics for 30 years. I have had dozens of patients who had lived in orphanages in different cities in the United States before the passage of federal aid for support of widows and orphans in the 1930s and the rise of the professional class of social workers was let loose on America from Columbia University in the early 20th century. The federal programs and the social workers drove the religious groups out of children's services, forced the closure of orphanages and set up a "homeless program" of employment for the "professional know it all" group of social workers to place children in foster care. Social workers are the only group of health care provideers who cannot be removed from interfering in the care of patients in nursing homes, dialysis units, or hospitals. They are empowered to interfere by federal law, at the risk of losing payment for properly provided services, and in defiance of patients" wishes. All the patients I have spoken to have related that they were well treated at orphanages, had only positive memories, and lifelong friendships. There was no basis for closing orphanages and no one can point to any justification other than the liberal conviction that they know better what is good for the poor and orphans than community leaders and religious groups. You are a voice in the wilderness. Have no illusions that your work will change any programs in the U.S. Orphanages around the globe continue to provide exemplary care in countries who have kept the bane of the professional class of social workers at bay. I have spoken to many social workers; they have no knowledge of orphanages as their curriculum includes no mention of orphanages. Keep up the good work. I read your article in the Wall Street Journal today and had to reply to you. My deceased husband of 49 years was raised in what is today "The Masonic Home for Children At Oxford in North Carolina". Bill was in the home for almost twelve years going to school half a day and working on the farm the other half. He also learned a trade that helped him to go to Wake Forest University along with loans and ROTC. He was the second in his family to graduate from high school and the first to graduate from college. The Orphanage prepared him for a life that his family could not have provided. Oxford as I always told him prepared him for me and the raising of our four children. I believe his upbringing gave him the desire to succeed in life and strive for the best he could be for God, his family and his business.

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Oxford Orphanage was established in 1873 by the Masons and is still taking children today. Bill had a building remodeled for the archives and funded a documentary film called "A Thousand Brothers & Sisters". We hired an archivist who is still who continues to work with the Home. Bill pasted away May 7th, 2008 from AML, but was able to see his dream of the Cobb Archives and Museum at Oxford completed. Thank you for the wonderful article and I can attest to the outstanding preparation for the life ahead for these orphans to become productive adults as my husband became all his life. Thank you again, The orphanage essay was excellent--very thoughtful and persuasive. Have you heard about the HOA (Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York?) A book has been written about them; "The Luckiest Orphans" by Hyman Bogen. I have heard about the HOA from my father and my mother's brothers who all lived there. My father had both parents but they could not take care of him and his older brother. My grandfather was too ill and my grandmother worked for a doctor as a cook and could only take along my father's youngest brother. My father told us that he got his love of history from the HOA. They had a very complete library. But there were stories that pained me to hear. He stuttered and was made fun of. He found that he didn't stutter if he sang so he developed a love for singing and music in general. My mother had 4 older brothers who all were in the HOA. My other grandfather, who was a widower, told them that he paid for them & impressed upon them that he just couldn't keep them. My mother and aunt went to different relatives until my grandfather remarried. Two of my uncles kept running away from the HOA to relatives. One of my uncles became a doctor, another played in the NY Philharmonic and taught at Julliard, and two were successful in business. I can thank the HOA for bringing my parents together. My father was friends with my her brothers and so it came to pass.

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The HOA had a newsletter for a long time and reunions were held in Florida. My parents went several times. The HOA was spoken of with great affection. All I know is that I am grateful for the wealthy Jewish families that contributed to the HOA and helped my father, uncles, and many others growing up. Saw the article in Wall Street Journal, very well done. Your idea of a Sam Walton for orphans is most original. Hope you were able to find a copy of my book. Responses from "alumni" of Buckner have been most gratifying. Hope it adds at least some satisfying background to the dialogue. Great article Richard in the WSJ! I am spreading around. Things are moving yet not as quickly as wanted due to real estate values for our land. Either way we are still focused on our Vegas project. Just when you thought it was safe to go out in the water :-) Take care. "The world needs a Sam Walton of child welfare" Indeed. It would also benefit our construction industry. And if you find someone even close to Sam Walton (but the old school Sam Walton...) willing to spend his money on a project like this instead of on much more remunerative tricks which enable couples to become parents at 76 through the aid of 4 other people and 5 physicians, please keep me in mind. After having been exposed for 3 years to the reality of foster care in New York City (as a foster parent) and having fought in court so that my daughter (and myself) could be spared the agony of "permanent temporary care" (what the hell is that!?), I am more and more convinced that provided good and caring people are in place, a well run orphanage would be thousands of time better then what these kids go through either because of agencies complete lack of diligence (to be fair, I will add they are also overwhelmed in some cases) or because of poor laws, or both. Thank you for your article and for your attention, I plan to get in touch with Ed Shipman and Phyllis Crain, I am very interested in their experience. Very best regards,

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A few days ago, a friend complained that his life might have been a lot different if his father had not died when he was a little kid. In response, I sent this note. Perhaps you know that I grew up without a father in my life. Did you know that I was sent to an orphanage near South Bend, IN when I was in first grade? After two years, the child welfare people placed me and brother Tony in a rural family home near Mill Creek, IN. Later, in ninth grade, I lived with my older sister, Dorothy, before I was taken in by the Louis Ludtke family as a hired farm worker until I graduated from high school. After high school, I worked in a steel mill for a year then left because the atmosphere destroys human lungs. I found a job in a furniture factory for a year until the military draft started breathing down my neck. No, I did not want to go to Korea and live in a dirt hole, so I volunteered for the US Air Force, 1955-59, and worked in cryptography. I changed what did not work for me, and looked for something better. I am sure you will find your successful path in life. Sometimes, you may have to make a difficult decision to change your behavior. Nobody can do it for you. TV Dr. Phil often asks people, Hows that working for you now? You decide. After my military service, I earned a BA degree at Ball State University, the MA at Wayne State University, and the PhD at U-Michigan, Ann Arbor. Now as a retired English teacher/professor, I find time to read some good literature, play some average golf, and travel to Europe once a year to enjoy the old world. In October, 2010, we will again visit Rome and Tuscany. Thanks for writing Home Away From Home. The article was wonderful and powerful and you are right; there will be critics because they cannot stand to be wrong. Unfortunately, that is where our political standards are today. Many think they are right or correct in their thinking so therefore it must be true despite the facts. Case in point, the healthcare fiasco that we are being forced to accept and as you and I know the debate over orphanages or children's homes. We are doing well but we are reaping the "benefits" of today's feelings/opinions. I have passed the 18 years mark at Connie Maxwell and still love it. I have watched many of the 'kids" grow

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up, get married, have children and succeed! They are my family. Check out our homepage at www.conniemaxwell.com and scroll down to the story re Kadarron Anderson. Do a Google search on him and see the stories written about him or even go to the Furman web site and check the athletic section about him. He is a great kid and doing very well. I have been blessed to be here and look forward to many more years at this special place. Your link led me through a web access through the university's secure area so I worked on the link and got to see the article. I will forward it along. Thanks for remembering me and sending the article. Thanks also for the continued fight and please keep up the great work. God Bless, Congratulations, Richard! Mazal tov! I like the article a lot! Even the cost comments. Ive been thinking the past few days a lot about the costs (high!) of American RE programs/ orphanages. Dr. Crain wanted me to share with you that she is receiving emails from friends all over the country who have read your editorial and wanted to give you her love and admiration for all of your great work!! I enjoyed your article this morning and wanted to congratulate you on another strong and clear message about the merits of orphanages. I don't think I ever told you, but 4 years ago, shortly before your film came out, Linda and I adopted a 6-year old girl from an orphanage in St. Petersburg, Russia. Although it is half a world away from Barium Springs, our observations about the environment were completely consistent with your views. The responsibilities that Luba had at the orphanage, even at the age of 4 (making her bed, keeping her clothes put away, setting the table, etc) have stayed with her. So in my little focus group of 2 biological daughters and 1 orphanage alumnus, Luba wins hands-down in the responsibility-around-the-house category. She was cared for, learned responsibilities, and was very socialized from the environment. Have a great weekend. I was thrilled to see your op-ed "The Best Thing About Orphanages" in the WSJ this morning. I have been saying this for the last couple of years and asking "Where have all the orphanages

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gone?" I read an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel a few years ago about a reunion of adults in their 50's on up who were raised by nuns in an orphanage. This article really opened my eyes and changed my thinking about orphanages (my only previous exposure to an orphanage was in the movie Oliver, which you mention in your article, where the boy stands there and asks, "Please sir, may I have some more?") I loathed the idea of orphanages from that scene alone! But then I began mentoring a 26-year old African American woman who had been sent to Wisconsin from Georgia at the age of 7 to spend the next 11 years being shuttled from one foster care home to the next. To complicate things, she has cerebral palsy. Her experience is heartbreaking, if not infuriating. Had she been allowed to live her life in an orphanage, with consistent medical care and therapy and an education that would have profited her brilliant mind, I believe she would be a different person today and not living as I found her: aimlessly living in the squalor of public housing and harboring much anger toward the system that "managed" her. When I tell people that I think we should bring back orphanages, they look at me as if I've said the most politically incorrect thing possible. I point out that orphanages can often be much better than life with the biological family. I mentored another girl, 17-years old, who was sexually abused beginning at age 3 by the male "friends" of her mother. They played "ring around the rosy" sex games with her and her sibling. I met her when I was serving on the board of a publicly run group home. After three years of my serving on the board of the group home, and watching the herculean effort the system puts forth to "keep families together," I became even more convinced that orphanages had to be better than life with a hyper-dysfunctional, if not downright sick, family. Your article is quite timely as I wonder about all the children orphaned in Haiti due to the earthquake. Thank you for your research and clearing up inaccuracies that abound regarding orphanages. I look forward to reading your book! God Bless, I am the archivist for the Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre here in Britain. We have just been awarded a major (in our terms) grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund for a project entitled "Therapeutic Living with Other People's Children: an oral history of residential therapeutic child care c. 1930 - c. 1980". The rather dry but still in its infancy website is at http://www.otherpeopleschildren.org.uk. I am also a member of the board of the recently-formed Child Care History Network, http://www.cchn.org.uk. I am writing because I have just read your article in The Wall Street Journal, "The Best Thing About Orphanages" and was very excited. My experience of the positiveness of former children

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from therapeutic schools and children homes here in Britain - the Archive and Study Centre is devoted broadly-speaking to residential therapeutic environments, and I have been the archivist for some time now - was very much the driving inspiration behind the "Therapeutic Living with Other Peoples Children" application, as well as my experience, from the reasonably conventional background of a warm and loving family in the Western United States, that these folks could generally run rings around me in terms of balance, insight, resilience, and most other qualities including self-belief and drive. Indeed, it has been the drive of a number of former children from different places which has ensured that the application kept going, and that it grew into the shape that it has. I have ordered "Home Away From Home" and "The Home". I would like to download the podcast, but wonder if there is some way to get $12 or equivalent to you apart from a check, which is difficult from over here. I was also wondering whether you would be willing to have a look at and perhaps even comment on the project. The next two years are going to be ones of discovery, in which there is a window of opportunity to do some very interesting things; and we can use all the guidance, suggestion, insight and reflection we can get. With thanks and best wishes, Follow-up email from the same writer immediately above: Thank you, Richard. The link with Kate Whetten will be helpful in various respects, not least in engaging history with practice. I think there will be many reasons for the positive response to your article, not least the release it gives to look complex reality in the face and to set aside what one feels or thinks one knows based on everyday getting-along and "everyone knows...". .I am not saying this very well, but even people without the experience of broken up and traumatic childhood can read your article and feel the exhilaration of the obvious and taken for granted being challenged by personal experience. It's of course disturbing at the same time, so one can not expect everyone's response to be positive or welcoming. But you also bring to it the expertise of your experience, and the irrefutability (I'm sure that's not a word - apologies) of your own life. Which means that even if they don't want to, people have to stop and listen; certainly before they start to cover over or disagree. And that moment of silence is itself exciting, in the midst of the usual noise of social conflict and argument. Dear Dr. McKenzie: My father was a motherless child and my mother was a fatherless child. Both in St. Anthony's orphanage in McKeeport, Pa. To the day my father died he yearly sent money to St. Judes orphanage. Coal mines in south western Pa and the coal miners movement for

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unionization during the 1920's took the lives of my grandparents. Mother's father killed in mine cave in - eight children under the age of eighteen. Fathers mother died of an infection for an unsuccessful abortion - she was pregnant at the time the Pittsburgh Coal Company evicted my grandfather from the company owned home for union activities -bad decision to seek an abortion. What else to do but place the kids in an orphanage until you could stabilize your family. Which they did and our family is a union of children of orphanages. Thanks for the WSJ article. My mother spent a number of years in what she liked to call a boarding school but was really an orphanage, although she wasnt fully an orphan her father had left and her mother had started drinking heavily. She turned out fine. I dont know if youve used this example in other places, but Robert Creamers bestselling biography of Babe Ruth includes a tribute to the orphanage where his father sent him because his mother was ill and the headstrong giant child was a handful to keep off the streets. Brother Matthias Boutlier became Babes father figure and taught him baseball. My wife and I were flying home to Florida from a long weekend in San Francisco, attending a social work research conference. I was reading the Wall Street Journal and we came across your recent editorial. You and my wife had corresponded briefly in the late 1990s as she completed her Ph.D. dissertation, which was a follow-up study of the adult functioning of some 100 or so alumni or a traditional orphanage near Orlando, FL. She too found that their general level of functioning in life was quite high, and we believe that orphanages get a undeserved bum rap from the mainstream child welfare system. Hence we found your editorial both interesting and validating. Best wishes in your continuing important work in this area. If you have a bibliography of research studies on the topic of orphanage care, we would appreciate seeing what you have, and if there are any studies were are unaware of. I just finished reading Richard's article in the WSJ. I was glad to see that he continues to advocate for orphanages. I remember him being very committed to his position and attending a talk he gave in Santa Rosa many years ago. I have no experience with orphanages but have been a Big Brother to several boys in foster homes and never felt that they were the only solution. I don't have his address so I must communicate through you. Nola and I are in Paris where we ae fussing over our new granddaughter and visiting some sights.

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We would like to see you all sometime but we don't get to So. Calif. often. I see in your face book that Catherine is quite grown up. In Wake Forest? Anyway please tell Richard Good Work.

Blogs on the WSJ column:

Reporting 1 Blog From the hot computers and sharp minds of budding journos at the U of Oregon Accessed January 19, 2010 from http://reporting1blog.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/a-newperspective-on-orphanages/. A new perspective on orphanages By Lauren Fox The Wall Street Journal has never caught my eye before, but I was interested Friday in seeing how they covered the earthquake in Haiti. The story was fairly typical and like most of the others I had read so I flipped inside to the Weekend Journal. There were some surprisingly entertaining info-graphics on the cover of the section so I dived deeper into the pages until I stumbled upon an article titled The Best Thing About Orphanages. The article talked about how a study at Duke University found that children raised in orphanages are no worse off then children raised by relatives in those same communities. Along the same lines, the study found that children raised in orphanages actually live more productive lives then children raised in the community by strangers, which is often the situation that children in foster care encounter. Before summer I would have thought the article odd and ridiculous, but after covering the closing of one of Indianapoliss largest orphanages, I knew that there were probably some truth to that headline. The Childrens Guardian Home had cared for neglected and abandoned children for more than 120 years and because of a cut in the countys funding, it was shut down. I had gone out on a few of the stories that dealt with the issue during my time at WISH-TV in Indianapolis. During one particular interview at the citys mayors office, it became clear that employees at the guardian home thought of the children as their own. Although the home was usually a temporary residence for children, many kids had been there for nearly two years. I remember one of the social workers talking about how even though it was an orphanage it was still a home for many of the kids who had no where else to go. After work I returned to my grandfathers house to find him in his usual place; he was in the den off of the kitchen watching the evening news. (He usually had it on the NBC affiliate because he

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could never remember that I worked at the CBS affiliate.) I gently changed the channel reminding him that I worked at WISH. When he asked me how my day was, I told him it was fine. I also told him about the guardian home. My sister and I stayed at the guardian home for a couple months when I was a kid, he said. I had fought back tears all day because of the story and I didnt know if I was going to last much longer after he made his announcement. You did? I asked. Oh yeah it was a really nice place, he added. It was a stable home for a few months. I knew my Grandpa had a rough upbringing, but I had never thought he lived in an orphanage. I asked my aunt the next day to make sure; it was true. As I read the Wall Street Journals article, I was stunned by the fond memories that many children said they had during their time at their respective orphanages. The author, Richard B.McKenzie, was an orphan himself. The piece was pretty clear that he was fond of his home. I guess I am too. I clearly remember watching the last kids leave the Guardian Home this summer and I remember their faces. They were sad to be leaving their home. The article reminded me what a good story always does. It reminded me that how I think about the world isnt the only way. There are always differing views. I guess mine has kind have changed about orphanages because if they worked for my grandpa, Richard B. McKenzie and thousands of children surveyed then they cant be all bad. I am writing from home, so I will be brief. I received a copy of your WSJ Jan. 15 article and was thrilled to read it. 2008 and 2009 were terrible years for orphan's homes in Virginia and our home was no exception. Our outgoing Governor's wife made many statements similar to Hillary Clinton's and then used her political clout to "demonize" our homelike settings. She actually was quoted saying, "Foster care prepares families for life with a family. Orphan's Homes prepare them for what? Prison?" In other words, she equates our 166 acre beautiful setting for children to be "institutional". Our Homecoming celebration each summer is awesome and I hope you can come. We started last year creating a video journal of alumni stories and they are truly inspirational. We also have a very impressive piece of history I want to share with you in hopes you can help us get it to a wider audience. From the 1920's until 1955, Presbyterian Homes had a shoeless football team that went mostly unbeaten. There are great articles and even black and white footage filmed by Fox Studios that documents these amazing boys. I will send you a DVD we have made of these "wonders" I know you will enjoy. I have visited Barium Springs and know a bit about your home as well. Thank you for writing the book. I can't wait to get copies. I know our alumni will enjoy it as well. Hope we can talk

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and that our alumni can get added to a cohort of research. Our most impressive (careers of) alums made it to the top of telecommunications companies and into statewide elected office. All my best, We enjoyed your article in the WSJ 1/15/10 edition on Orphanages. Our web site contains a directory of Christian Orphanages worldwide. We often get inquiries from kind people who wish to offer their services in orphanages, some in the USA. Until we read your article, our response has often been to those wishing to serve in the USA, "there are no longer orphanages in the USA: they have been replaced by the foster care system" or some such. We would very much like to carry some of your observations about the superiority of orphanages on our website. We cannot afford to purchase the rights to the article as it appeared in the WSJ in order to include it on our site. Do you have any other published material that you would care to share with us for this purpose? Thank you so much for the article. It certainly impacted our view of orphanages vis a vis foster homes. In preparation for a speech I plan to give to our small group at our Senior Center, I was doing some research on the net about orphanages. I saw several articles written by you and listened to a PBS program (forgot the station now but I believe in NC). I'm a product of the Methodist Orphanage, Raleigh, NC (Methodist Home for Children now) in the '40's and 50's. So by my saying you are right on about the need for good quality orphanage today, I know of what I speak. I have long believed that growing up in a loving home is best for any child, but also many of us who didn't have that option, growing up in an orphanage with caring and loving staff is an excellent alternative. I am who I am today because of the orphanage, and I might add a better person than if I had been raised in eastern North Carolina on a tenant farm. Keep up the good work!

Hello Richard,

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Stan Friedland here; author of "An Orphan Has Many Parents" and friend of Rosalind Folman (who also is an Alumnus of my orphanage, the PJCH). Just wanted to compliment you on your recent article (Roz had sent it to me). Once again, you hit the mark squarely with a clear, informative and forceful article on our favorite subject. You've really become our lead spokesman on this issue and I applaud you for your continuing leadership efforts in advancing better understanding of the values of quality orphanages. Keep up your good work. It's most valuable and necessary.. Warmest best wishes. I read with much interest your article in the WSJ on January 15th. I, too, grew up in an orphanage in Nashville. While they tried foster homes for some of the children ( that never worked), I never had an interest in it. Even though it wasn't perfect, I did have a sense of security and belonging somewhere. It makes me so sad that orphanages are almost extinct. I know I would have never liked being in a foster home. Monroe Harding Children's Home in Nashville has now changed so much and that angers me. In the 70's they quit taking children and it is now a home for very troubled youth in their later teens. They had a reunion about 6 or 7 years ago and those of us who went back were very dismayed and disappointed with all the changes they had made. Thank you for writing this article. It said everything I have felt for so long-

Richard, Just wanted to take a quick moment to say hello. I just finished reading the article where you finished speaking about the Duke University study. Sorry if I am behind the times. I am now well into my 7th year here at MHS after coming on staff in 2003. We are certainly different from the school you visited when you spoke at our Alumni Senior dinner not long after writing "The Home." However, in the formal and informal ("grandmothers") research that we have done in our office...our alumni echo the sentiments of the people you have spoken about. I hope this note finds you in good spirit and good health. All the best Hello Richard!

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I'm sure you will remember us - Woodie Smith & Barbara McCall Smith - from that wonderful orphanage we share in common with you. Louise and I are in close contact. As a matter of fact, she came down in Oct. & spent a couple of nights with us. Did you know that she and I were 'big sisters' together at Synod Cottage for two years? Anyhow, she keeps me posted on any news she receives from, or about, Barium Alumni, thus she forwarded your recent email to me. She knew I would be interested. I printed your article, "The Best Thing about Orphanages", so Woodie could read it as I read it online, and also to add to my Barium memorabilia. I have quite a collection of articles and tons of photos (all in albums). Woodie and I realize we don't do anything to promote bringing back the orphanages - just talk about it - but I want you to know that we appreciate all your hard work, and efforts, in an attempt to make it happen. The responses you got to your article, esp. from those who have "been there", speaks volumes as to the need. As I read this, I could not help recall my own experience. By the time I got into Barium Springs, I had already turned 13. My sister, who was older than me, wasn't so fortunate. Being too old to be accepted by an orphanage, she was sent to Westfield, NC to a foster home. There was one other girl, and her younger brother at this foster home. Although I never heard my sister say she was mistreated, I knew then, and have often recalled, that she was not in a situation nearly as happy, and fulfilling as mine. The life that followed did not turn out well for her either, and she had a sad ending at age 68. So many troubles; so many hardships; so many heartaches. After she left the foster home, she sort of closed her mind to the fact that she was ever there. Not much was ever discussed about her years at the home, nor the foster home 'parents'. It was not an experience she cared to share with others, unlike my happy days at Barium. Woodie and I proudly tell anyone, and everyone that will listen, about our good fortune and what it means to us still today. We always get positive responses. So, Richard, keep up the good work, and perhaps one day, even if it doesn't happen in your time, or ours, your dreams, and ours, will come true. What a difference that could make for so many unfortunate children. What a true blessing it could be! Maybe we'll see you at homecoming again in August. Your Barium brother and sister, Woodie and Barbara Barbara continued in a second email:

I just had a thought - one of which has most likely already crossed your mind. At any rate, I thought I would "throw it out there".

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The most recent Newsletter we received had a long story about J.D. Beshears, which had been a tribute to him on Veteran's Day, and printed in the Statesville Daily News. After reading this, my feelings were that his perseverance, and ability to survive this horrific experience as a POW, had to be largely credited to his upbringing at Barium Springs. Our boys were used to hard work and being disciplined. They were strong, and determined. And, let's not forget the power of one's faith. J.D. certainly did not fail to mention his fervent prayers and belief in God. Personally, I feel that this article is proof that orphanages were, and are, a huge plus for children without one to care for them. The education, both scholastic and religious, the activities provided, discipline, work ethics, and bond with one another, speaks volumes. I don't care what those critics say. Woodie & I would never trade our time at Barium for a foster home. We have often stated that we'd like to "turn back the hands of time" to those days, and just freeze time. Yesterday, Woodie & I watched "When the Bough Breaks" again. It has been about 6 mos. since we had watched it, and I must say, each time brings back such fond, fond memories. We never tire of it. We also watched a video that was shot at Homecoming 1991 (100 years celebration of Barium Springs). Woodie was there, but I was not. Anyhow, Barbara Johnson's daughter, Ginger, was interviewing a lot of the Alumni over in front of Rumple Hall. She asked each of them if they had something special they'd like to say about their time at Barium. Not one person said anything negative - i.e., being mistreated, hating being there, etc. You probably have seen that tape, and know where I'm going with this. I just can't understand how one - esp. one whom has never "been there", can be so dead sure that orphanages are not good. It rather angers me. It so happens that I have 2 cousins, in Raleigh, that were in the Methodist Children's Home in Winston-Salem. I also have a close friend in Mt. Olive, NC who had 6 of 10 siblings who were in Oxford Children's Home in

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NC. Four of them were too old to be taken in, and stayed home with their mother, and struggled to help her get through. They did not have it nearly as good as the 6 who went to Oxford. Not once have I ever heard any one of them say anything negative about their time at the orphanages. I happen to know that 2 of my friends go back to Oxford every year for their reunion. Anyhow, I just wanted to make note of J.D.'s article. I was blown away by it, as I see J.D. at Homecoming each year, and I believe he attends all the mini-meetings. He's been at all 3 that I've attended. He has such a positive outlook on life, appears much younger than his years, and just LOVES Barium Springs and his connections to those memories. By the way, is there any chance that "When the Bough Breaks" has ever been put on DVD (if that's possible)? As we watched this again, I realized how much improved that could have been today. Anyhow, if not on DVD, is it still available - even if on VCR? I would be interested in obtaining another copy. So Richard, I hope all is well with you, and yours, and that you have a beautiful weekend. Barbara (McCall) Smith Barium Springs (proud) graduate 1955
Barbara followed with a third email with additional details on her life before and during her orphanage days: Just one more thing that came to me "out of nowhere". Having never known my daddy, and losing my mother when I was four, I was being raised by (older), maternal grandparents before I went to Barium. They were loving & provided all the necessities, but didn't spend much time with my sister and me, as they both worked, plus they had an early (8:30 pm) bedtime. My grandfather was killed in an auto accident in June 1950, and my grandmother died the next month after an extended illness. They weren't actually my biological grandparents, as they adopted my mother,

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and 5 years later, another baby girl - my aunt who died at age 44. It was her children that I mentioned sent to the Methodist Children's Home. Anyhow, my point is this. Perhaps 3 years, give or take, prior to losing my grandparents, I had met a family in Winston-Salem (long story), who had 4 children. First I met the youngest daughter, who was close to my age, and we hit it off right away. She took me to her house to meet her Mama and I just loved her! She was so much fun. After that meeting, I spent some wonderful, fun-filled weeks with the family during the summers that followed. I was visiting them, for what was to be a week, when my grandfather's auto accident happened and my stay was cut short. After I went to Barium, this family came to see me on numerous occasions and I spent some vacation time with them my first summer at Barium. They talked about adopting me. I wanted that really badly ...... at the beginning. By the time they got through all the red tape, and got the final approval, I had been at Barium long enough to feel that was where I wanted to be. They came to break the good news, and I backed out. It was hard to tell them I'd changed my mind, but I did. Of course I had no earthly idea what all they had been through to get to that point, and that bothered me later in life, but I never regretted not leaving Barium even when I had such a great opportunity for a "normal" family life. I think that sort of throws a curve in the critics theory about being "in a family situation". I KNEW these people. I LOVED these people. I had the good fortune to be able to compare my life with a "real family" or Barium. When I was sent to Barium, I had no choice. This time I did, and Barium was my choice. They could have given me so much, but I'm happy I stayed. Once I graduated, and moved to Winston-Salem, I again visited that family, and was welcomed with nothing ever said. So, that's "my story", and I'm sticking to it. Just wanted to share.
Barbara

I would like to add my comments about the need for an institution such as the "orphanage", that existed in the '40's & 50's. I am a product of such an institution so I know what I am talking about. I think Mr. Richard McKenzie is right on with his research. Yes, it is best to have children grow up in a loving, caring home with parents who love and provide for their needs. But that is fantasy to think we all had such a home. In cases where that

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doesn't exist, growing up in an orphanage with a staff who is dedicated to the kids is a much better alternative, I think, than spending most of your childhood in many, many foster homes. I spent ten years in an orphanage and would like to think I am a better person than I would have been with another option. Check out the kids who graduated from an orphanage; you will find, for the most part, we are well-adjusted adults who have and are still contributing to society. This certainly is the case with the orphanage where I lived. If you still doubt it come to one of our annual reunions, yes, I said annual. You will find more than a hundred "brothers & sisters" who still have that "attachment" to one another after 50, 60+ years. Bobby Braswell Class '56 Methodist Orphanage (Methodist Home for Children) Raleigh, NC Dr. McKenzie, Thank you for your thoughtful study on The Best Thing About Orphanages (congregate care).I started out as a line staff at Father Flanagans Boys Home in Nebraska in 1972.I have been in the business since then and your conclusions ring true, despite the conventional wisdom of the last 3+ decades. Currently, the Youth Law Center and the National Center for Youth Law are heading east from the Oakland/San Francisco area with the intent to close congregate care facilities across the Nation.they closed ours in Clark County, Nevada, where kids were forced into kinship homes (often not even related) and foster homes where abuses run rampant and child deaths have spiked.their first slide, in their power point presentation to legislatures, is Congregate Care is Harmful To All Kids.they then cite a study (found later to be from Russia) that examined high Cortisol Levels in kids in congregate care.(no one bothered to check if the levels were from the abuse or neglect received while with their families)..it was very sad.my kids, most formerly homeless, have went on to earn MBAs and become Doctors. After losing our program in Nevada, Im in a privately funded program in Texas, just north of Houston. Our web site is: www.boysandgirlscountry.org Thank you for sharing some data on an understudied and very important subject. I wish Id of had this 2 years ago!

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Critical comments on the orphanage column:

Tim McMahan wrote as a comment posted on the WSJ web site (01/16/10): I believe Mr. McKenzie makes the mistake of comparing orphanages best against foster cares worst. What children need most is to learn the ability to attach to other people. This can only be done well in the context of a loving family. Simply taking care of their physical needs merely bounces the problem of abuse and neglect down another generation. Certainly foster children bounced from one home to the next are not in any better situation than children in orphanages to learn attachment, but the intention is always to find a permanent home for them. Finding stable permanent homes for all of America's foster children is an obtainable goal. If just one more family in every church, mosque and synagogue would step forward, the issue of what to do with America's orphans would be overwhelmingly resolved. Americans need to resolve to take care of these children in our own families rather than be content that they doing "just fine" in an institution out-of-sight and out-of-mind. The impulse to have our society's problems pushed out of our line of sight and onto some one else must be resisted.

Tim M. Co-Host Foster-Parenting Podcast

Richard McKenzies rebuttal to Mr. McMahan can be found on his web site (http://web.merage.uci.edu/~mckenzie/).

D B Edge wrote in rebuttal to Mr. McMahan: Mr. M. To compare the best orphanage with the worst of foster care is unfair. Unfair too is the statement that 'out of sight and out of mind' may be the goal of families and society with children in orphanages. The assumption that children from orphanages do not form attachments is not a fair assessment. If nothing else 'orphans' form attachments to each other. As a matter of documentation, it is more likely foster children have difficulty in forming attachments and many lose touch with not only their parents, but their siblings as well as they are often separated from each other, unlike the case in orphanages.

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Unfair also is the statement that 'intention' may excuse what these children go through while they are being moved around from family to family. Modern orphanages provide not only safety, security, stability and education; they also provide individual counseling, health care, lessons for independent living, family reunification efforts, long term foster care placement, adoption and plenty of love and hugs. These children deserve to be able to grow, develop, mature and learn until more favorable environments are found or created for them, whatever that permanent home environment becomes. And yes, sometimes it could even mean that an orphanage provides the best option for them. All of us want the best for children, especially those that need our help and concern most desperately. Let us not discount out of hand any real and effective alternative that may be available to them. Good foster parents are one of our greatest assets to help through traumatic times, but when the trauma of separation turns into the trauma of no real long term home, revolving foster care homes are not the answer, whatever the intention. The statistics for foster care outcomes are dismal. Children who age out of the foster care system are subject to being part of the 60% who are homeless at some time, or the 40% who become entrenched in our legal system. Forming attachments is not as important as a feeling of belonging. Being in a pre-defined family structure is not as important as a feeling of self-worth and self-determination. And growing up in an orphanage is not as important as being a well adjusted, well prepared adult. It has been quoted to me that the man with experience has nothing to fear from the man with knowledge. I am married with four children, 12 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. I assure you, we are all quite attached. Every year, I visit with my 400 sisters and brothers. We are family and we are attached. And as many thousands like me, I grew up on an orphanage.

Ruby Abbott wrote in rebuttal: I, too, grew up in an orphanage and, also, like DBEdge, I disagree with Tim M when he insinuates that a child growing up in an orphanage does not 'attach to people.' I can assure you that all 400 of us kids growing up together had plenty of people to attach to and that attachment still exists all of these years later - for me 70 years. Personally, I believe foster care would contribute to a child not being able to form attachments as, more times than not, they are shuffled from one foster or group home to another until they age out and then are dismissed by the Social Services, while at our Children's Home, we knew we had a permanent home which instilled a sense of security and belonging that a foster home

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and, yes, even sometimes adoption homes, cannot provide. Tim M's remark inferring that children in orphanages are 'out of sight, out of mind' and that only their 'physical needs' are being addressed are definitely wrong. It is obvious that he knows nothing at all about children growing up in an orphanage and, most likely, has never studied any statistics regarding this type of home care for children. Furthermore, WE did not think of, nor even speak of, our orphanage as 'an institution', or even as an orphanage; it was simply our HOME. The majority of children who grew up in the Children's Home that I grew up in felt that this was their Home and, as DBEdge so eloquently stated, we felt safe and secure in our home; as for being out of sight and mind - most of us had at least one parent and other relatives that we were able to spend time with on the Home campus and on vacations at their homes. Most of us came from families who had such unfortunate situations as single or widowed mothers unable to care physically for her children alone and parents with no jobs and unable to provide financially for their children. Some children's parents, or other relatives, sometimes recovered from these unfortunate situations in time and would reclaim their children. Most stayed until they graduated from high school, giving us many years to form very good friends (attachments ) from our happy years spent together living at a Children's Home. We were very proud of our Home, the outside community was very proud of our Home, we attended public high school and church with children living in private homes with their families, thus forming 'attachments' with other people in this manner. I don't feel I missed out on a whole lot by growing up in an 'orphanage'; on the contrary, my friends feel we had a happy and fulfilling life as children at our Children's Home and the discipline, education, and wonderful social experiences we had growing up are so priceless that we meet every year for a Homecoming at our Home to reconnect. It is my feeling that growing up in a Children's Home is the better alternative for children who need another home than their family and as compared to foster care. I also feel that this discussion on orphanages is more valid coming from people who have experienced it than those who are employed to promote foster care. RBAbbott

Critical Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704509704575019132118874098.html

LETTERS JANUARY 27, 2010, 6:00 P.M. ET

Orphans, Especially Very Young Ones, Need Families Richard McKenzie's "The Best Thing About Orphanages" (Taste, Jan. 15) cites a recent study by researchers at Duke University, which concluded that orphaned and abandoned children living in

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institutions in low-resource countries were at least as well off as children living in homes with adults other than their parents. And he cites his own survey of 39 orphanage graduates in the U.S. indicating they had outperformed their contemporaries in the general population. Based on this "evidence," he asserts that orphanages, though not the only solution, are an important part of societal interventions for children without parents. Despite Mr. McKenzie's own remarkable personal story, fond memories and selective testimonials are not a way to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention. The investigators from Duke, in fact, note the flaws in Mr. McKenzie's survey and the inability to draw meaningful conclusions from it as part of the justification for their ambitious undertaking. The Duke study only included six- to 12-year-old children. Only 5% of the children entered the included institutions before age two years and only 20% by four years. Thus, these were not children abandoned at birth and institutionalized, they were children raised by families and then placed in institutions after considerable rearing in a family (as Mr. McKenzie was himself). There is now considerable research by us and by other investigators demonstrating conclusively that: (1) institutional rearing in the earliest years has a corrosive effect on early brain and behavioral development, an effect that can be only partially remediated by subsequent placement in families, (2) the sooner children are placed with families, the better their chances for recovery, and (3) within institutions, the more they resemble families, the better children function. What children need is loving care in which they feel valued, appreciated and protected. Research is clear that positive relationships within families are much more important for children's development than what happens in institutions. The evidence is clear that placement in families is always preferred. In the U.S. and other high-resource countries, the emphasis needs to be on building high quality family care rather than returning to outdated interventions. Charles H. Zeanah, M.D., New Orleans Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D., Boston Nathan A. Fox, Ph.D, College Park, Md.

Lynn Kohner wrote in response to Zeanah, Nelson, and Foxs letter to the editor (as posted on the WSJ web site): There is a fuzzy assumption that if a child is not placed in an orphanage, then he or she will automatically go to a family. The two years or so of transition, with multiple foster care providers, are far more disruptive than placing the child in an institution. The Doctors are fine on theory, but somewhat disconnected with reality. Try reading Kathy Harrison's 'Another Place at the Table' and 'One Small Boat'.

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Richard McKenzies response to Drs. Zeanah, Nelson, and Fox posted on the WSJ web site for the letter (01/28/10) (a longer rebuttal will be posted on McKenzies web site): Drs. Zeanah, Nelson, and Fox apparently didn't read my column on orphanages very carefully. They write that I have surveyed only 39 orphanage graduates, which would make for a limited study, perhaps qualifying as "selective testimonials." However, I report in the column that During the past decade I have surveyed more than 2,500 alumni from 15 American orphanages. I do use 39 in my column, but only to report, "White orphanage alumni had a 39% higher rate of college graduation than white Americans of the same age." My studies on orphanage alumni have limitations, as I have acknowledged and as all studies do to one degree or another, but my work has been sufficiently rigorous to be published in two top academic child welfare journals. Moreover, many of the orphanage alumni entered their orphanages at early ages. I would be the first to agree that loving families can be wonderful for children, but the plain fact remains that many children don't have loving families. And even loving parents can be brutally abusive to their children. Besides, many orphanage alumni have written me in response to the column that they had "families" -- even loving ones -- in their orphanages, which helps to explain why so many orphanage alumni attend their annual reunions by the hundreds (and even thousands in a couple of cases). Loving families can come in many variations, other than the model the writers have in mind. I have been amazed and gratified by the many positive responses to the column from orphanage alumni, which are now posted on my homepage: http://web.merage.uci.edu/~mckenzie/ . The letter writers and others should check them out, as well as the film and edited volumes mentioned in the column.