Talk:Orphanage

Proposed Edits
I am a law student research assistant. I am attempting to add edits to this page and related pages in order to enrich the wealth of knowledge about the field of foster care, child placements, and the involvement of religious institutions. Unfortunately, many of my edit attempts have been undone based on an apparent flag for conflict of interest. However, the source I am primarily adding is a relevant academic work, much like many of the other admitted sources on this page. I have also assisted in flagging additional sources and cross-referencing other Wiki pages. I am proposing my edits below in bold in the hopes that you will implement them (or revert to the previous version of this page that includes them). Thank you for your time.

Proposed edits to 19th Century heading (edits in Bold):

By the early nineteenth century, the problem of abandoned children in urban areas, especially London, began to reach alarming proportions. The workhouse system, instituted in 1834, although often brutal, was an attempt at the time to house orphans as well as other vulnerable people in society who could not support themselves in exchange for work. Conditions, especially for the women and children, were so bad as to cause an outcry among the social reform–minded middle-class; some of Charles Dickens' most famous novels, including Oliver Twist, highlighted the plight of the vulnerable and the often abusive conditions that were prevalent in the London orphanages.

Clamour for change led to the birth of the orphanage movement. In England, the movement really took off in the mid-19th century although orphanages such as the Orphan Working Home in 1758 and the Bristol Asylum for Poor Orphan Girls in 1795, had been set up earlier. Private orphanages were founded by private benefactors; these often received royal patronage and government oversight.[7] Ragged schools, founded by John Pounds and the Lord Shaftesbury were also set up to provide pauper children with basic education.

*moved paragraph*  Thomas John Barnardo, the founder of the Barnardos Home for orphaned children. A very influential philanthropist of the era was Thomas John Barnardo, the founder of the charity Barnardos. Becoming aware of the great numbers of homeless and destitute children adrift in the cities of England and encouraged by the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury and the 1st Earl Cairns, he opened the first of the "Dr. Barnardo’s Homes" in 1870. By his death in 1905, he had established 112 district homes, which searched for and received waifs and strays, to feed, clothe and educate them.[10] The system under which the institution was carried on is broad as follows: the infants and younger girls and boys were chiefly "boarded out" in rural districts; girls above fourteen years of age were sent to the industrial training homes, to be taught useful domestic occupations; boys above seventeen years of age were first tested in labor homes and then placed in employment at home, sent to sea, or emigrated; boys of between thirteen and seventeen years of age were trained for the various trades for which they might be mentally or physically fitted.[10]

'''Many orphanages in 19th century America were formed as a reaction to the substandard conditions many reformers and religious groups found at poorhouses. These reformers recognized the cost efficiencies of these institutions but believed children should be housed separately from adults. Orphanages became increasingly popular in the 1830s. Religious teachings and practices were an uncontroversial, essential part of orphanage life. The need for orphanages increased due to immigration, urban poverty, cholera epidemics, and a decline in the use of indenture. '''

'''The first orphanage in what later became the United States was Catholic, founded in New Orleans in 1728 by French nuns. The first public orphanage was the Charleston Orphan House, which opened in 1790. The managers of this orphanage would sometimes place children in apprenticeships. In some legally binding indenture contracts, the managers would include terms that required that the master take the child to church, demonstrating the prominence of religion in these institutions. Later this developed into a requirement that the child attend Sunday school. '''

*moved paragraph* In 1806, the first private orphanage in New York (the Orphan Asylum Society, now Graham Windham) was co-founded by Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, widow of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.[8] Under the influence of Charles Loring Brace, foster care became a popular alternative from the mid-19th century.[9] Later, the Social Security Act of 1935 improved conditions by authorizing Aid to Families with Dependent Children as a form of social security. (with links to remain as is).

'''Orphanages perpetuated the segregation that was present at the time of their prominence. In 1822, Quakers in Philadelphia founded the Shelter for Colored Orphans, the nation's first institution for Black children. As the number of orphanages increased, they subdivided along both religious and racial lines. This division resulted in unequal services for children who were part of religious or racial minorities. '''

'''In the postbellum period after the Civil War, religion remained an important part of orphan asylums, even as concern for soldiers’ orphans prompted the creation of over 100 new asylums. Even those claiming to be nonsectarian, such as public institutions, were raising children in a nondenominational Protestant manner. More and more orphanages were formed or modified to cater to specific religious groups, which led to unequal and inadequate services for religious minorities. Additionally, impoverished immigrant parents used these institutions to provide temporary care for their children times of difficulty, such as unemployment or illness. In 1890, almost no orphanages in the country were interracial and only 27 catered to Black children.

'''Funding mechanisms shifted during the same period, as many state governments began offering funding to private institutions as a method to ensure care was being provided to children. Initially, funding was directed to private asylums to ensure soldiers’ orphans were being properly cared for. Pennsylvania was one of the first states to do so, mostly distributing funding on a per capita basis. Even with a law passed in 1873 prohibiting state funding to be appropriated for “charitable, educational or benevolent purposes. . . to any denominational or sectarian institution,” Pennsylvania continued to provide per capita payments to private, religious institutions such as those caring for soldiers’ orphans. '''

'''By 1910, orphanages housed nearly three percent of all children in the United States. Foster care largely began to serve as a replacement for institutions as religious groups and others began to evaluate the benefits the experience would provide to children, and many scholars preferred the use of welfare payments to both options. Many groups behind orphanages, such as faith-based agencies, gradually transitioned into foster care placement agencies to accommodate to changing needs based on the shrinking numbers of children in institutions and decreased funding. These organizations have often continued the practices of religion matching that they initially employed in orphanages. '''

Gator.scholar24 (talk) 15:23, 1 May 2024 (UTC)

Section titles
Added titles to sections for ease of navigation. --Digitalgadget 03:22, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

SOS Children's Villages
The 60,000 children in SOS Children's Villages should be taken out of this article. Their childcare model provides a permanent family not orphanage care by shift workers. --BozMo talk 15:46, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Question
Also, why are Lithuania and Estonia under Europe and Latvia under "ex-Soviet"...??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.226.124.125 (talk) 22:23, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

The Ukraine and Latvia are in Europe...
I'd 'fix' it, but then the Soviet Territories bit would be inconsistent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 60.234.210.9 (talk) 09:12, 17 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Actually, depending on the method used, the Soviet Union was in Europe too. There's several methods for determining the continent a country belongs to: Majority of Land mass, by which reckoning the Soviet Union is Asian, Cultural by which reckoning the Soviet Union was European and 'Capital' (which is a method where the entire country's counted to be on the continent it's capital city is on, which was originated in post-colonial times when some of the smaller countries in Europe found themselves to be continentally in Africa or South America according to the landmass method) by which method the Soviet Union is still technically in Europe. Robrecht (talk) 20:43, 9 February 2009 (UTC)

Read it.
Here is a website you should read before saying something you are not qualified to say. --Esthertaffet (talk) 03:11, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Like you have any idea of my qualifications. The statement you are asserting makes NO sense in context. 98.248.32.178 (talk) 03:15, 3 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Can you provide a reference to why it doesn't make sense? --Esthertaffet (talk) 03:19, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I provided you a reference that you clearly rejected. It is a suitable source. -- Esthertaffet (talk) 03:20, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Sure, it's a valid source. But the sentence you're trying to implement makes no sense.
 * "An unrealistic alternative to orphanages would be to have adoptive parents adopt."

How the frak does that stand up to basic logic? Now you have a nice day, and in the future keep in mind that discussion about the article should take place on the ARTICLE talk page. 98.248.32.178 (talk) 03:25, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Well if you didn't have a problem with me, I wouldn't have to talk to you on your page. The article discussion page is only for developing the article. The fact that the foster care system is broken must be revealed. Stop hiding that fact. It is hurtful to all those children who were "lost" in the system. --Esthertaffet (talk) 03:28, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

The foster care system is broken. Many kids age out of the foster care system with no families. Clearly, it is broken. Again, how is this bias? --Esthertaffet (talk) 03:42, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Go find a soapbox from which to spread your biased and illogical message - this isn't the place. 98.248.32.178 (talk) 03:45, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Why don't you tell me what is illogical about the message? --Esthertaffet (talk) 04:22, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Adoption is unrealistic because the people who adopt kids aren't mandated to adopt every child. This means there will always be a kid left behind. Since society can't enforce this rule of allowing every child to be adopted because that act would violate human rights. This is the reason why it is unrealistic for adoption to occur instead of orphanages. --Esthertaffet (talk) 04:57, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Third Opinion - A Third Opinion has been requested on this page, but it is unclear to me precisely which parts of the article are under dispute, and what alternative wording is being proposed. Could both parties please clarify the dispute, referring to specific sections of the existing text where possible? Thanks. Anaxial (talk) 21:20, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

"An unrealistic alternative to orphanages would be to have adoptive parents adopt. Adoptive parents are not mandated to adopt every child. It defeats the purpose of adoption as an alternative to orphanages. This remains an unresolved issue."

I want to add this in the intro but the other user doesn't agree with me which I don't understand. Adoption is an unrealistic alternative and because it doesn't allow all kids to be adopted. We should let readers know why the foster care system is broken. --Esthertaffet (talk) 21:40, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * You cannot say that adoption is an "unrealistic" alternative to orphanages, because that would be a POV statement, and not suitable for Wikipedia. You can include a section within the article itself about controversies, so long as arguments on both side of the debate are properly cited. You can then refer to that in the lead with something along the lines of "there is a continuing debate about the relative merits of orphanages and adoption." In other words, you don't need to say that adoption is "unrealistic", you need to provide the arguments, so that a reader coming to the article can work out for themselves whether or not it is unrealistic. Anaxial (talk) 21:50, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

How is it a point of view statement? It's the truth. It is unrealistic because not all kids are adopted. Esthertaffet (talk) 21:53, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

"An alternative to orphanages would be to have adoptive parents adopt. However, adoptive parents are not mandated to adopt every child. It defeats the purpose of adoption as an alternative to orphanages. This remains an unresolved issue."

How is this? I removed unrealistic. Esthertaffet (talk) 21:55, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * That might work in the body of the article (not the lead; it's too specific), so long as you clearly indicate who has made these arguments, and where they have published them, and include any counter-arguments there may be. Anaxial (talk) 22:07, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * An alternative to orphanages would be to have adoptive parents adopt. However adoptive parents are not mandated to adopt every child. If society enforced a rule for people to adopt all kids, that would violate human rights. Adoption can be seen as a realistic alternative to orphanages for kids who are adopted. Those who aren't adopted are left behind without a permanent family.

How is that? Esthertaffet (talk) 22:17, 3 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I'd suggest making it clearer who is saying this in the text (although it's there in the link, of course): "according to [name organsation]..." And, again, I don't think this belongs in the lead, and a statement like "would violate human rights" needs stronger supporting evidence - perhaps a clear statement from the UN, or some similar body? Otherwise, I'd leave that bit out; people can figure it out for themselves. The rest of it looks OK to me, although it might need a bit of copyedit. Anaxial (talk) 17:13, 4 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not going to put that in. It's too much of a hassle to find the references if there are any. I haven't found any. I think it's best to just leave it out. Esthertaffet (talk) 18:10, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Old vandalism
This wasn't fully fixed, and all of the blanked information needs to be restored. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:21, 25 June 2013 (UTC)

None of this is relevant to the US
24.50.151.151 (talk) 21:03, 7 January 2015 (UTC) Where are the statistics for the US orphans maturing out of care? Why do you have such a thorough report on the results of foster care on your wiki article but decline to provide info on orphanages? There are new models for orphanages in the US, why is info not provided on these new models? Your US orphanages merely list the names of the 217 agencies in US but provide none of the information your patrons want. With such deplorable results from foster care, clearly you would want to provide an alternative. By not providing info you are falling into the trap of 'if we provide care, we'll be inundated.' HOW CAN THE IMAGES OF ORPHANAGE HORROR CREATED BY FINANCIAL INTERESTS BENEFITING FROM PRIVATE CONTRACTORS BE OVERCOME IF YOU DO NOT PRESENT THE ORPHANAGE CARE SIDE? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foster_care_in_the_United_States After “aging out” of the system at age 18, research has shown that previous foster youth still face difficult instability in their lives. As much as 30 percent of previous foster children are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.[18] Only about 50 percent graduate from high school[19] and less than 10 percent graduate from college.[20] A study focused on foster care alumni in Los Angeles County showed that about 65 percent leave foster care without a place to live and 25 percent are incarcerated by age 20.

What will be the results when the extension of 18 to 21 care ends?

A Modest Act of Vandalism
It was a pretty good joke, but I am not thinking Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal should be put under "Significant Charities that help orphans." Nice try though--

Text Removed:
 * A Modest Proposal Relocation proposition penned by Jonathan Swift as a work to put the children to work and feed the poor in 18th Century Britain. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gideon.judges7 (talk • contribs) 02:11, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

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New article on Orphans in India
My am interested in creating this article. This topic will include content such as the prevalence of HIV/AIDS orphans, the treatment of orphans, and the physical and mental health problems of orphans in India. My user page (Sshah11) has various sources that I will use to write this article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sshah11 (talk • contribs) 06:50, February 24, 2019 (UTC)

Redirects
Currently Children’s home redirects to this article, yet Children's home redirects to Congregate care. The Q53033847 with the alias children's home links Residential child care community, which again redirects to Congregate care. And Q2173824 has the label children's home. TherasTaneel (talk) 09:59, 28 August 2019 (UTC)
 * I have restored Residential child care community as a synonym for children's home (Q53033847) and the redirects to this article. Astirmays (talk) 22:57, 21 December 2021 (UTC)
 * @TherasTaneel @Astirmays I think this should redirect here instead. Children's home is a historical and international generic term, while the Residential child care community seems to be a newer, rare jargon that's not worldwide. Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 05:48, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
 * I think we need a distinct article from orphanage, be it named children's home or Residential child care community, for "orphanage" don't fit with most modern children's home (especialy these children being rarely orphans). Astirmays (talk) 08:04, 16 April 2023 (UTC)
 * @Astirmays Perhaps this article could be renamed, but the lead states: "An orphanage is a residential institution, total institution or group home, devoted to the care of orphans and children who, for various reasons, cannot be cared for by their biological families." It's a pretty modern definition that addresses your concerns.
 * It may be worth checking how those topics are covered in traditional encyclopedias, but my quick search found little (no entry in Britannica?) except stuff from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (sigh). Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 08:11, 16 April 2023 (UTC)

is the orphanage in SA ?
Where is it? 41.116.43.248 (talk) 19:54, 30 January 2022 (UTC)