Analysis Of Mary Ellen Johnson´s The Orphan Train

The Old Testament documented the earliest cases of children being under the care of foster parents. Under the law these references establish duty for caring of dependent children. This type of English poor law lead to the development of regulations for family foster care in New Jersey. For example: During 1562, those laws allowed the placement of poor children into indentured service until they became adults. This procedure was taken to the United States leading to the beginning of the practice; placing children into homes. Indentured service allowed exploitation and abuse to children however, it was an advantage compared to the almshouses where children were exposed to tremendous acts. Different types of indenturing children continue until

The Orphan trains were use to relocate children to new homes within different states. According to The Orphan Train documentary, between the years of 1853 and 1929, an estimated 250,000 orphans were relocated from major east coast cities such as New York City, to new homes throughout the United States and Canada. These children traveled on what became popularly called Orphan Trains. At the peak of the Orphan Train movement, 3,000-4,000 children a year were traveling west. More than 6,000 orphans relocated to Missouri. The conception of the orphan trains was to assist children find a better living, most of these homes were congested, the children were severely disciplined with heavy corporal punishment. “ Corporal punishment was the norm, and the little though was given to children’s developmental needs”.

The Current Nation and State of Foster Care statistics shows the following:

Nation Statistics

As of September 30th, 2014, 415,129 children were in foster care which means that there was an increment of 4% compare to 2012 statistics.

In the United States, every two minutes a child enters to foster care, there is a total of 264,746 children who entered.

As of September 30th, 2014, 107,918 children were waiting to be adopted

50,644 children were adopted with the assistance of public child welfare agencies.

During 2012,

These children are in need of nurturing families who will help them heal and grow.

Need for more adolescent homes.

201Nationally, 56% of the children and youth in care are children and youth of color:

32% African American; 18% Latino; Indian Children in many states are over-represented as well, especially in South Dakota where 3% of the population identify as Indian and 63% of the children and youth in the foster care systems are of Indian ancestry.

2, there were 2,322,children were living in out of home care however they were living with some relatives.

Believed that “children form mental concepts or schemes as they experience new situations and events

Piaget also believed that children first try to understand new things in terms of schemes they already possess, a process called assimilation. For example, if Sandy points to a picture of an apple and tells her child, ‘that’s an apple,’ the child forms a scheme for ‘apple’ that looks something like that picture.

The child might see an orange and say ‘apple’ because both objects are round. When corrected, the child might alter the scheme for apple to include ‘round’ and ‘red’. The process of altering or adjusting old schemes to fit new information and experiences is