The essay "The Children Who Wait" has been written by an American writer Marsha Traugot. This essay describes the condition of children of the United States who do not have parents. The writer describes parentless children, their adoption scene in the past as well as the reason behind the new trend in adoption in the present.
SUMMARY
Marsha Traugot wrote the essay “The Children who wait”, in the prevalent trend of child adoption in a few decades in America context. Marsha Traugot suggests reasons for a new trend in adoption. Now a wider variety of Families can open their homes to children who in the past would have been levelled unadoptable. In setting forth the causes for this phenomenon, Traugot draws from specific case histories.
The writer begins her essay with an example of a 5 and half years old black homeless girl named Tammy who is suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome which can stop her intellectual growth at any time. By this, Traugot wants to prove that she is not dealing with fiction but a specific case study. In the past, especially before 1960, the black, disabled, handicapped and sick children were unadoptable. Tammy has recently been legally freed for adoption which shows the changes that have taken place in the American adoption scene. Before 1960, only healthy white infants could be adopted. But now, the American adoption scene has been completely changed due to different civil rights movements, birth control, changing social values and social science research. Because of civil rights movements, the attitudes of American people towards Negro children changed. Due to birth control and legalized abortion, fewer unwanted babies were born. Even the unmarried women could keep their babies with them because of the changing social values. As a result, healthy babies were hardly available for adoption and people turned their attention to other children like Tammy.
Due to the massive growth of population, the number of homeless children is in the increasing trend. Between 1960 and 1978, the number of children in the foster home reached nearly half a million. Many states have no idea about the number of children who lived with their biological parents, who lived in foster homes and those children who could be adopted. If such children were left in the foster homes for more than 18 months, they would suffer from different kinds of illnesses and social crimes. It would make their life more troublesome, complicated and worse. The politicians also wouldn’t invest any fund to begin new programs for such children as the children have no rights to vote. So, the homeless children were neglected and uncared. According to child care specialists, the cost of keeping an average child in the foster home was. $3,600 to $24,000. This shows that the foster home was expensive and cruel. The writer suggests that social workers should change their attitudes. They should accept even disabled children for adoption. They should open child care centres and hold meetings.
Now, the social workers write down the characteristics of the child and the profile of a suitable family and then they try to match. To find the possible adoptive parents, the social workers first look to their lists. They give detailed information about the children to the regional exchange offices. They organize meetings and parties for children and possible parents to meet informally. If they still can t find adopters by personal contact, they advertise on T.V. and publish the child’s profile in the newspapers. Thus, child welfare specialists and social workers can do a lot for the children who wait for adoption.
Important Questions and Answers:
1. Whom does Marsha Traugot refer to as the children who wait?
Ans: In ‘The Children who wait’, Marsha Traugot has shown the changes in trends in adoption comparing the past and present and exhibiting various examples. In the past, not all the children in foster homes could be adopted. The prevalent law restricted adoption of Black children, handicapped, the unhealthy and the children above 5 years old. Similarly, the children from minority and mixed-race were also labelled as unadoptable. But after the 1960s, especially after the Second World War, the new trends in adoption emerged in America. A wider variety of families began to open their homes to such children who in the past would be labelled unadoptable. This helped to raise the standard of justice and humanity. Now any type of child can be adopted from foster homes by suitable families. Thus, Marsha Traugot refers to the children who wait to those who once were confined to live only in foster homes and now are waiting to get their family and future as well.
2. How were the handicapped, black and weak children viewed in the past?
Answer: The handicapped, black and weak children were viewed in a biased manner in the past time. They were really in very bad condition in the orphanages. People didn’t have any liking towards such children. They didn’t want to adopt such children who are physically unfit, weak or black. Such children were supposed to be the damaged goods. The people who wanted to adopt the kids from orphanages only took interest in healthy white kids. The handicapped, black and weak children were not even looked at once by the people. So the condition of such children was so miserable in the past time.
3. Whom does Marsha Traugot refer to as the children who wait? (2057)
Answer: Marsha Traugot refers to the children of America who do not have parents and who are living under the care of orphanages. She raises the issue of orphans as well as orphanages. She explains the condition of orphans, their adoption in the past time and also a new trend that occurs in the course of adoption. These children are homeless and parentless whose eyes are always in wait of someone.
4. Why was it difficult for the handicapped and the black children to find the foster family? (2060)
Answer: It was difficult for the handicapped and black children to find a foster family because of the narrow concept of the people in the past. People who needed child used to select only healthy and white children. Nobody wanted to adopt black and handicapped children. People did not have any emotional touch towards handicapped and black children. People thought only for white and healthy children. Such acts of people brought various problems in adopting the black as well as unhealthy children in the past time.
5. According to Traugot, what changes are transforming the American adoption scene? What are the responsible factors for the change? (2060)
Answer: According to Traugot, the following are the changes that transforming the American adoption scene:
> There is no biasness in adopting the child. Foster parents do not have any problem in selecting a child whether black or white. E.g. – Tammy, a black child get his foster parent.
> Government and social workers try their best to find fine parents for the orphans.
> Children get fine facilities even in foster care.
The factors which are responsible for the changes are as follow:
> Development in social and conceptual sectors.
> Legalization in abortion.
> Civil right movement.
> Changing attitude towards sex and behaviour.
> Study of anthropology.
6. Why were children like Tammy not adapted in the past? (The Children Who Wait) (2072 Partial)
OR
Why are the children like Tammy waiting for adoption? (2075)
Answer: In the past, the society of America was so rigid. Most of the people were uneducated and narrow-minded. They showed their biased behaviour in the matter of adopting a child. They didn’t have any liking towards those kids who were black in their skin colour. Handicapped kids were supposed to be damaged goods. For them, people didn’t have any emotional concern. Only healthy whites’ kids were supposed to be adoptable. The case of Tammy was somewhat the same. She was black in her skin colour. She suffered from fatal alcoholic syndrome. She was such a fragile child. Therefore, she was stamped as unadoptable in the past.
7. What kinds of parents were considered suitable for adopting children? What kinds of children were considered ‘Unadoptable’? (2062)
Answer: Those parents who did not have any biasness in selecting the child, who were educated, having the ability to handle the child nicely etc were considered as suitable parents for adopting children. Those children who were black, unhealthy as well as more than five years of age were considered unadoptable.
8. How did the paper media help in the adaption process? (The Children Who Wait) (2072)
Answer: In this essay, the writer has stated the role of paper media in the adoption process. According to the child specialists, those kids who spent more years in the orphanages are likely to turn into criminal activities as well as mental illness. So, the kids must not be kept in the orphanages for a long time. Thus, the government of the USA took the help of paper media. Paper media kept on doing its best in the task of advertising the orphans of one region to the other regions. This process helped those kids who were staying for a long time in the orphanages. Due to the paper media, people got the right information about the kids and the kids got their foster parents easily. Paper media made people feel easy to get information about orphans and adopt them.
9. How do adoption agencies find potential parents? (2064)
Answer: Following are the ways by which the adoption agencies find the potential parents:
> By giving newspaper article, advertisement on television about an orphan.
> By mobilizing social workers.
> By giving detail about the child in regional exchange offices.
> By starting various awareness programmes for people about orphans.
10. What had happened to the handicapped children in the past? (2065)
Answer: In the past, people were so narrow-minded. They were not interested in adopting those children who were handicapped. The lots of handicapped children were so poor. They did not get foster parents for their future. They were supposed as damaged goods. No one wanted to adopt such children.
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