Fostering on the Farm by Megan Birk

Author:Megan Birk [Birk, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, United States, 20th Century, Family & Relationships, Adoption & Fostering
ISBN: 9780252097294
Google: nLVCCQAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2015-06-15T02:52:23+00:00

5. The Farm, the Federal Government, and the Decline of Placement

“The farmer is a slave, and his wife is the slave of a slave…harp all you will about the pure air…but account, if you can, for the generally stunted physical and mental growth of country children.”

—Sarah Burns, Pastoral Inventions

Hastings Hart provided a blunt assessment of farm placement when he discussed how the farm affected children: “Take a boy of good parentage, with natural refinement, good features, small bones, small hands and feet; put that boy on a farm, where he will have to get up at five o'clock in the morning, milk five or six cows, attend a district school, with meager opportunities, and where he will be associated with people who lack refinement; and one of two things will happen: the boy will either deteriorate and go backward, or he will become discouraged and a complete failure…place that boy in a village home and he will be a complete success.” The boy best suited for the farm, according to Hart, was “a rather dull and backward but strong and good natured boy.” The virtuous American farm, once the savior of dependent children, served only as a good refuge for children for whom proper schooling or intellectual stimulation would be a waste.1

In the scenario Hart laid out, the bright boy needed to stay in a good home with interesting influences; the dull but otherwise healthy boy could be placed on a farm; and children for whom a normal home would not do because of disability could stay in an institution. Crucial changes in the national discussion of child welfare helped push Hart's hypothetical scenario into a reality. The 1909 White House Conference on Dependent Children made prominent existing suggestions about the importance of family preservation, and in 1914, standards recommended by the National Conference for Charities and Corrections further accelerated the turn away from farm placement by suggesting multiple annual visits by placing agents, with an emphasis on homes “restricted to distances within ready supervision of the organization legally responsible for the child.”2 States like Indiana had just managed to get children a visit at least once a year, so moving toward multiple visits would require a massive increase in resources. As one directive for placements explained, “Formerly it was supposed that nearly all the best available homes would be found on farms, and placement in towns and cities was not specially advocated or magnified. Experience has demonstrated that many of the best homes are in populous centers, and probably more children are now placed in towns and cities than on farms.” Paid foster homes ensured that homes within easy distances could be located and that the job of foster parent went to urban or suburban dwellers of the working class, where they remained into the twenty-first century.3

The increased amount of state and local regulation for the care of dependent children brought change to rural placement, first by increasing the supervision placed-out children received and then by reducing the number of placed-out children through family preservation, paid boarding, and specialized institutions.

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