We must not expect normal graduation or competency rates from a population of children that have lived in very troubled homes without community help.

A seven year old girl in my caseload knew just a few words, been sexually abused (kicked so hard by her abuser that she went into convulsions) when she started first grade. She was representative of many of the fifty children I worked with as a guardian ad-Litem.

Over many years I watched as educators tried diligently to help her succeed, but her underlying lack of skills and mental health issues made it impossible for her to learn or lead a normal life. She was a handful for all who came in contact with her.

She and our schools and community would have been much better served if this child had first been soundly supported from a mental health perspective rather than demanding that teachers manage her outbursts and sometimes terrifying behaviors (and expect her to play well with others).

This child’s traumatic and fearful entry into an unprepared and under-resourced public school system is the tip of the iceberg.

The Prozac, Ritalin, and other psychotropic medications being prescribed to very young children is terrifically overused in many child protection systems. Judge Heidi Schellhas shared with me the pages and pages of five, seven, and nine year old children that passed through her courtroom that were heavily medicated on antipsychotic drugs. We read about it often, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/business/02kids.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1283685929-4vV95VANamU0xapU45ORhg

The disruption from one child with the type of problems I have witnessed is multiplied by the growing number of at risk children in this nation as poverty and disappearing support systems create more troubled families and more child abuse.

When the calls are taken, three million children are reported to child protection in the U.S. each year.

Minnesota is now screening out 2/3’s of the calls coming into child protection under the assumption that making services available will gain better results than bringing children into the court system. Providing services to families is the best answer, but removing children from violence, sexual abuse, and drugs is critical if we expect that child to sit in a classroom and do math, or write a comprehensible sentence.

All children deserve to have the skills necessary for achieving success in school and in the larger community.

Dealing with the deficits at risk children bring into the classroom would make schools successful, our communities safe and healthy, empty the prisons, & lower the rates of early pregnancy & sexually transmitted diseases.

Each one of us can do something positive in support of educating children. Support a bill, tax, or program that enhances a child’s chance to grow. Volunteer as a reader, mentor, or anything that fits your comfort zone (so you will stick at it).

It will take all of us to support those that are doing the work to mend our very troubled schools and communities.

“What we do to our children, they will do to our society” (Pliny the Elder, 2400 years ago)

Kyle Warren, at 6 years old.
By DUFF WILSON
Published: September 1, 2010

OPELOUSAS, La. — At 18 months, Kyle Warren started taking a daily antipsychotic drug on the orders of a pediatrician trying to quell the boy’s severe temper tantrums.
Related

Prescriptions Blog: Q. & A. With a Child Psychiatrist (September 2, 2010)

Chris Bickford for The New York Times

Kyle Warren at 6 years old. At 18 months, Kyle started taking a daily antipsychotic drug on the orders of a pediatrician trying to quell the boy’s severe temper tantrums.

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Thus began a troubled toddler’s journey from one doctor to another, from one diagnosis to another, involving even more drugs. Autism, bipolar disorder, hyperactivity, insomnia, oppositional defiant disorder. The boy’s daily pill regimen multiplied: the antipsychotic Risperdal, the antidepressant Prozac, two sleeping medicines and one for attention-deficit disorder. All by the time he was 3.

He was sedated, drooling and overweight from the side effects of the antipsychotic medicine. Although his mother, Brandy Warren, had been at her “wit’s end” when she resorted to the drug treatment, she began to worry about Kyle’s altered personality. “All I had was a medicated little boy,” Ms. Warren said. “I didn’t have my son. It’s like, you’d look into his eyes and you would just see just blankness.”

Today, 6-year-old Kyle is in his fourth week of first grade, scoring high marks on his first tests. He is rambunctious and much thinner. Weaned off the drugs through a program affiliated with Tulane University that is aimed at helping low-income families whose children have mental health problems, Kyle now laughs easily and teases his family.

Ms. Warren and Kyle’s new doctors point to his remarkable progress — and a more common diagnosis for children of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder — as proof that he should have never been prescribed such powerful drugs in the first place.

Kyle now takes one drug, Vyvanse, for his attention deficit. His mother shared his medical records to help document a public glimpse into a trend that some psychiatric experts say they are finding increasingly worrisome: ready prescription-writing by doctors of more potent drugs to treat extremely young children, even infants, whose conditions rarely require such measures.

More than 500,000 children and adolescents in America are now taking antipsychotic drugs, according to a September 2009 report by the Food and Drug Administration. Their use is growing not only among older teenagers, when schizophrenia is believed to emerge, but also among tens of thousands of preschoolers.

A Columbia University study recently found a doubling of the rate of prescribing antipsychotic drugs for privately insured 2- to 5-year-olds from 2000 to 2007. Only 40 percent of them had received a proper mental health assessment, violating practice standards from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“There are too many children getting on too many of these drugs too soon,” Dr. Mark Olfson, professor of clinical psychiatry and lead researcher in the government-financed study, said.

Such radical treatments are indeed needed, some doctors and experts say, to help young children with severe problems stay safe and in school or day care. In 2006, the F.D.A. did approve treating children as young as 5 with Risperdal if they had autistic disorder and aggressive behavior, self-injury tendencies, tantrums or severe mood swings. Two other drugs, Seroquel from AstraZeneca and Abilify from Bristol-Myers Squibb, are permitted for youths 10 or older with bipolar disorder.

But many doctors say prescribing them for younger and younger children may pose grave risks to development of both their fast-growing brains and their bodies. Doctors can legally prescribe them for off-label use, including in preschoolers, even though research has not shown them to be safe or effective for children. Boys are far more likely to be medicated than girls.

Dr. Ben Vitiello, chief of child and adolescent treatment and preventive research at the National Institute of Mental Health, says conditions in young children are extremely difficult to diagnose properly because of their emotional variability. “This is a recent phenomenon, in large part driven by the misperception that these agents are safe and well tolerated,” he said.

Even the most reluctant prescribers encounter a marketing juggernaut that has made antipsychotics the nation’s top-selling class of drugs by revenue, $14.6 billion last year, with prominent promotions aimed at treating children. In the waiting room of Kyle’s original child psychiatrist, children played with Legos stamped with the word Risperdal, made by Johnson & Johnson. It has since lost its patent on the drug and stopped handing out the toys.

Greg Panico, a company spokesman, said the Legos were not intended for children to play with — only as a promotional item.

Cheaper to Medicate

Dr. Lawrence L. Greenhill, president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, concerned about the lack of research, has recommended a national registry to track preschoolers on antipsychotic drugs for the next 10 years. “Psychotherapy is the key to the treatment of preschool children with severe mental disorders, and antipsychotics are adjunctive therapy — not the other way around,” he said.

But it is cheaper to medicate children than to pay for family counseling, a fact highlighted by a Rutgers University study last year that found children from low-income families, like Kyle, were four times as likely as the privately insured to receive antipsychotic medicines.

Texas Medicaid data obtained by The New York Times showed a record $96 million was spent last year on antipsychotic drugs for teenagers and children — including three unidentified infants who were given the drugs before their first birthdays.

In addition, foster care children seem to be medicated more often, prompting a Senate panel in June to ask the Government Accountability Office to investigate such practices.

In the last few years, doctors’ concerns have led some states, like Florida and California, to put in place restrictions on doctors who want to prescribe antipsychotics for young children, requiring a second opinion or prior approval, especially for those on Medicaid. Some states now report that prescriptions are declining as a result.

A study released in July by 16 state Medicaid medical directors, which once had the working title “Too Many, Too Much, Too Young,” recommended that more states require second opinions, outside consultation or other methods to assure proper prescriptions. The F.D.A. has also strengthened warnings about using some of these drugs in treating children.

No Medical Reason

Kyle was rescued from his medicated state through a therapy program called Early Childhood Supports and Services, established in Louisiana through a confluence of like-minded child psychiatrists at Tulane, Louisiana State University and the state. It surrounds troubled children and their parents with social and mental health support services.

Dr. Mary Margaret Gleason, a professor of pediatrics and child psychiatry at Tulane who treated Kyle from ages 3 to 5 as he was weaned off the heavy medications, said there was no valid medical reason to give antipsychotic drugs to the boy, or virtually any other 2-year-old. “It’s disturbing,” she said.

Dr. Gleason says Kyle’s current status proves he probably never had bipolar disorder, autism or psychosis. His doctors now say Kyle’s tantrums arose from family turmoil and language delays, not any of the diagnoses used to justify antipsychotics.

“I will never, ever let my children be put on these drugs again,” said Ms. Warren, 28, choking back tears. “I didn’t realize what I was doing.”

Page 2 of 2)

Dr. Edgardo R. Concepcion, the first child psychiatrist to treat Kyle, said he believed the drugs could help bipolar disorder in little children. “It’s not easy to do this and prescribe this heavy medication,” he said in an interview. “But when they come to me, I have no choice. I have to help this family, this mother. I have no choice.”
Enlarge This Image

Chris Bickford for The New York Times
Brandy Warren, left, with Dr. Mary Margaret Gleason.
Related

Prescriptions Blog: Q. & A. With a Child Psychiatrist (September 2, 2010)

Duff Wilson/The New York Times
Playing blocks labeled Risperdal.

Kyle Warren at age 3. His weight increased as a side effect of the antipsychotic medicines he was taking.

Ms. Warren conceded that she resorted to medicating Kyle because she was unprepared for parenthood at age 22, living in difficult circumstances, sometimes distracted. “It was complicated,” she said. “Very tense.”

Behavior Problems

Kyle was a healthy baby physically, but he was afraid of some things. He spent hours lining up toys. When upset, he screamed, threw objects, even hit his head on the wall or floor — not uncommon for toddlers, but frightening.

“I’d bring him to the doctor and the doctor would say, ‘You just need to discipline him,’ ” Ms. Warren said. “How can you discipline a 6-month-old?”

When Kyle’s behavior worsened after his brother was born, Ms. Warren turned to a pediatrician, Dr. Martin J. deGravelle.

“Within five minutes of sitting with him, he looked at me and said, ‘He has autism, there’s no doubt about it,’ ” Ms. Warren said.

Dr. deGravelle’s clinic notes say Kyle was hyperactive, prone to tantrums, spoke only three words and “does not interact well with strangers.”

He prescribed Risperdal. At the time, Risperdal was approved by the F.D.A. only for adults with schizophrenia or acute manic episodes. The following year it was approved for certain children, 5 and older, with autism and extremely aggressive behavior. It has never been approved by the F.D.A. for use in children younger than 5, although doctors may legally prescribe for any use they see fit.

“Kyle at the time was very aggressive and easily agitated, so you try to find medication that can make him more easily controlled, because you can’t reason with an 18-month-old,” Dr. deGravelle said in a telephone interview. But Kyle was not autistic — according to several later evaluations, including one that Dr. deGravelle arranged with a neurologist. Kyle did not have the autistic child’s core deficit of social interaction, Dr. Gleason said. Instead, he craved more positive attention from his mother.

“He had trouble communicating,” Dr. Gleason said. “He didn’t have people to listen to him.”

After the neurologist review, the diagnosis changed to “oppositional defiant disorder” and the Risperdal continued.

“Yes, I did ask for it,” Ms. Warren said. “But I was at my wit’s end, and I didn’t know what else to do.”

Dr. deGravelle referred her to Dr. Concepcion, who in turn diagnosed Kyle’s condition as bipolar disorder.

“Some children, when they come to me, the parents are really so frustrated,” Dr. Concepcion said in a phone interview. “Especially the mothers are so scared or desperate in getting help. Their children are really acting psychotic.”

Dr. Concepcion also spoke with Dr. Charles H. Zeanah, a Tulane medical professor, who disagreed with both the diagnosis and the treatment. “I have never seen a preschool child with bipolar disorder in 30 years as a child psychiatrist specializing in early childhood mental health,” Dr. Zeanah said.

More Pills

“It’s a controversial diagnosis, I agree with that,” said Dr. Concepcion. “But if you will commit yourself in giving these children these medicines, you have to have a diagnosis that supports your treatment plan. You can’t just give a nondiagnosis and give them the atypical antipsychotic.”

He also prescribed four more pills.

Kyle’s third birthday photo shows a pink-cheeked boy who had ballooned to 49 pounds. Obesity and diabetes are childhood risks of antipsychotics. Kyle smiles at the camera. He is sedated.

“His shell was there, but he wasn’t there,” Ms. Warren said. “And I didn’t like that.”

Dr. Concepcion referred Kyle to the early childhood support program, which has helped about 3,000 preschoolers from low-income families at risk for mental health problems since 2002.

His speech improved. He threw fewer tantrums. “They started working with us as a family,” said Ms. Warren, who also received parenting advice. “That helps.”

Kyle’s treatment was directed by Dr. Gleason, a Columbia medical graduate who had led a team that wrote 2007 practice guidelines for psychopharmacological treatment of very young children.

“Families sometimes feel the need for a quick fix,” Dr. Gleason said. “That’s often the prescription pad. But I’m concerned that when a child sees someone who prescribes but doesn’t do therapy, they’re closing the door that can make longer-lasting change.”

Off most drugs, Kyle started losing weight and his behavior improved. Ms. Warren’s life also improved. She met a man and they moved into their own house five miles out of Opelousas, a town of 25,000. They were married last Saturday.

At their home recently, Kyle and his brother, Jade, ran and played while their baby sister watched from a playpen. Their clothes were neatly folded in a shared bedroom. They often responded “Yes, ma’am” or “Yes, sir.”

“They’re respectful, but they’re hyper kids,” Ms. Warren said. “Once he came off the medication, he’s Kyle. He’s an intelligent person. He’s loud. He’s funny. He’s smart. He’s bouncy. I mean, there’s never a dull moment. He has a few little behavior issues. But he’s like any other normal 6-year-old.”

Kyle paused to show a reading report card from the end of his kindergarten year, with an A grade.

“Awesome job, Kyle!” his kindergarten teacher wrote.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: September 3, 2010

An article on Thursday about the perils of prescribing psychiatric drugs to young children misspelled, in one instance, the name of a Louisiana town that is home to a family whose son has been weaned off several such drugs. As the dateline correctly noted, they live in Opelousas, not Opalousas.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 2, 2010, on page A1 of the New York edition.

See the schedule and speaker list below.

WEBSITE: For more information, check out the symposium website:

http://ccf.nd.edu/symposium

RATIONALE: It is becoming increasingly clear that the ways we are rearing our children today are not the ways humans are designed to thrive. The ill effects of these missing ancestral practices are becoming evident as children’s well being in the USA is worse than 50 years ago (Heckman, 2008) and is among the worst in the industrialized world (20th in family and peer relationships and 21st in health and safety; UNICEF, 2007). We have epidemics of ADHD, anxiety and depression among the young, and, indeed, all age groups (USDHHS, 1999).

Too many children are arriving at school with poor social skills, poor emotion regulation, and habits that do not promote prosocial behaviors. Rates of young children whose behavior displays aggression, delinquency, or hyperactivity are estimated to be as high as 25% (Raver, & Knitze, 2002). The expulsion rate of prekindergarten children (Gilliam, 2005) and the number of children under age 5 with psychosocial problems (Powell et al., 2003) or on psychotropic medications have increased dramatically in recent years (Zito et al., 2000).

Mammals require nurturing care-giving for optimal post-natal development. Animal, human psychological and anthropological research provide converging evidence for the importance of conditions related to the “environment of evolutionary adaptedness” (EEA; Bowlby, 1951) for optimal brain and body system development in human beings. At the same time, epigenomic studies are beginning to better demonstrate the influence of caregiver behavior on offspring.

Despite the growing evidence for the effects of particular childrearing practices on brain development, scientific theory and policy recommendations do not match up with the findings. HOST: This symposium is being sponsored by Notre Dame’s Center for Children and Families (CCF), the Collaborative for Ethical Education (CEE) and the Department of Psychology. The Center for Children and Families brings scholars together to conduct innovative, interdisciplinary research in support of healthy development across the human lifespan.

The center encourages basic and translational research that can have a broad impact in three key areas: income and health disparities; developmental disabilities and psychopathology; and optimization of development, education, and learning. GOALS: It is anticipated that the symposium will lead to new theory and research designed to shed light on which practices are most essential to child rearing and development. There is an increasing amount of converging evidence across animal, human psychological, neurobiological and anthropological research demonstrating the later vulnerability of brain and body systems among those with poor early care.

Even when medicines are available to alleviate symptoms of dysfunction, the underlying suboptimal structures remain.

Examining closely what types of care are essential for optimal development will inform not only scientific research and theory, but public policy and inform translational research. REGISTRATION (to register, click here) Registration fees (include all meeting materials, refreshments, reception and lunches) • Physicians: $250 • Other health care professionals/educators/researchers: $150 • Students, underemployed and unemployed: $90 • All fees will increase by $25 after September 10. Lodging: A block of rooms has been reserved for this conference at The Morris Inn the nights of October 10 and 11. The cost for a single room is $149.16 and a double $171.76; both rates include applicable taxes and hot breakfast. Please contact The Morris Inn directly at 574-631-2000 to make your reservation.

For a list of the other hotels in the area, please click here. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Email: human.nature.early@gmail.com We hope to see you there, Darcia Narvaez, Program Chair Local Planning Group National Planning Group Chair: Darcia Narvaez, Psychology, CEE Jaak Panksepp, Washington State University Julia Braungart-Rieker, Psychology, CCF Allan Schore, UCLA Agustin Fuentes, Anthropology Tracy Gleason, Wellesley College Daniel Lende, Anthropology James McKenna, Anthropology Jessica Payne, Psychology Kristin Valentino, Psychology Michelle Wirth, Psychology Human Nature and Early Experience: Addressing the ‘Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness’ October 10-12, 2010 SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

Location: McKenna Hall Auditorium (unless otherwise noted) Speakers and working titles SUNDAY, OCTOBER 10 4:00 Registration and Opening Reception Setting the Stage 5:00 – 7:30 pm SPEAKER: Jaak Panksepp, Washington State University TOPIC: Social Emotion Systems of Mammalian Brains and Vicissitude of Early

Social Bonds: The Transformation of Social Delight to Grief, Depression and Despair. SPEAKER: James Prescott, Institute of Humanistic Science (formerly of NICHD) TOPIC: Early Research on Emotion Development and the Implications for Human Society SPEAKER: Allan Schore, UCLA

TOPIC: Bowlby’s “Environment of evolutionary adaptedness”: Recent studies on the interpersonal neurobiology of attachment and emotional development. MONDAY, OCTOBER 11: 8:00am-5:00pm 8:00 Coffee and snacks (included with registration) 8:30 Welcome and Introduction 9:00-12:00 4 speakers (30 minutes speaking plus 15 minutes for discussion, each) SPEAKER: Michael Meaney, Douglas Hospital Research Center, McGill University, Toronto

TOPIC: The Effects of Early Experience on Brain Structure and Functioning SPEAKER: Stephen J. Suomi, NIH TOPIC: Social Bonding in Early Development SPEAKER: S. W. Porges, University of Illinois-Chicago

TOPIC: Fussy Babies and the Autonomic Nervous System SPEAKER: C. Sue Carter, University of Illinois-Chicago TOPIC: Oxytocin and Early Experience 12:00-1:00 Lunch (included with registration) 1:00-4:00 4 speakers (30 minutes speaking plus 15 minutes for discussion) SPEAKER: Wenda R. Trevathan, New Mexico State University

TOPIC: Natural Childbirth SPEAKER: Pranee Liamputtong, La Trobe University, Victoria Australia TOPIC: Infant feeding practices: Benefits of breast milk and the impact of employment on infant feeding practices SPEAKER: Helen Ball, Durham University (with Dr. Charlotte Russell) TOPIC: The Importance of Co-Sleeping SPEAKER: Alison Fleming, University of Toronto

TOPIC: Caregiver Responsivity: Prompt Response to Needs 4:00-5:00 Colwyn Trevarthen, Discussant, and General Discussion 7:00-830 Film: The Business of Being Born TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12: 8:00am-5:00pm 8:30 Coffee and snacks (included with registration) 9:00-12:00 4 speakers (30 minutes speaking plus 15 minutes for discussion) SPEAKER: M.H. Teicher, MacLean Hospital, Harvard University

TOPIC: The Effects of Early Experience on Brain Structure and Functioning SPEAKER: Vincent Felliti, California Institutes of Preventive Medicine TOPIC: “The Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences to Adult Health, Well-being, and Social Function” SPEAKER: James McKenna, University of Notre Dame

TOPIC: Mothers, Fathers, Infants and Alloparents In Evolutionary Perspective: Revising the Conceptual Relevance of The Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness SPEAKER: Joseph Flanders, McGill University

TOPIC: Movement, Play and Multi-Age Playmates 12:00-1:00 Lunch (included with registration) 1:00-3:30 4 speakers (30 minutes speaking plus 15 minutes for discussion) SPEAKER: Douglas Fry, Åbo Akademi University in Finland

TOPIC: Cultural Influences on Human Nature SPEAKER: Agustin Fuentes, University of Notre Dame TOPIC: Social cooperation, niche construction, and the core role of intergenerational bonding in human evolution SPEAKER: Joan Roughgarden, Stanford University

TOPIC: The Genial Gene: Is there an Alternative Evolutionary Story? SPEAKER: Darcia Narvaez, University of Notre Dame, and Tracy Gleason, Wellesley College TOPIC: Ancestral Life Characteristics: Influence on Moral Functioning 3:30-4:00 Discussant Jay Belsky, Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues, London 4:00-5:00 Final discussion (separate room for clinical)

Wednesday, August 25, 2010
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM

Many adopted children are “multiply impacted” by prenatal exposure to drugs, and/or alcohol, by neglect and deprivation, complex trauma such as chronic child physical and sexual abuse, exposure to domestic violence, separation from or loss of significant other, and/or multiple out-of-home placements.

Please join Dr. Richard J. Delaney, internationally known speaker, acclaimed author and consultant to foster, kinship and adoptive parents for this 90-minute webinar presentation as he addresses adoptive parenting issues that include, how to get to the bottom of why children behave and how to approach problems, especially social aggression and anger outbursts.

Substantial time for discussion, questions and answers will be included during this 90-minute online presentation. Parents, professionals and others are invited to participate in this interactive online training. All you need is a computer with internet access, a telephone and a pioneer spirit!

$15.00 webinar only – REGISTER NOW
$25.00 webinar & CD – REGISTER NOW

Registration will not be available the day of the webinar.

For more information, please contact Anne Johnson at 612-746-5122 or ajohnson@mnadopt.org.

To learn more about MN ADOPT, visit www.mnadopt.org

Dr. Richard J. Delaney

Dr. Richard J. Delaney is an internationally known
speaker and consultant to foster, kinship and adoptive
parents. Most recently he served as the clinical director
of a community-based residential treatment center for
traumatized, multiply impacted, and emotionally
disturbed children in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

For many years, Dr. Delaney has been a consultant to the Casey Family Programs and other foster care and adoption agencies across the country. Dr. Delaney is the author (and co-author) of several books in the area of foster care and adoption, including Fostering Changes: Myth, Meaning, and Magic Bullets in Attachment Theory and Troubled Transplants: Unconventional Strategies for Helping Troubled Foster and Adopted Children. He is the principal investigator for Foster Parent College (www.fosterparentcollege.com), which is an online resource for foster and adoptive parents.

Dr. Delaney is currently the lead faculty member at Portland State University’s online training series for mental health professionals and helps them achieve adoption-competence coursework. Dr. Delaney is a father, stepfather and grandfather who resides in Fort Collins, Colorado and Bastrop, Texas.

MN ADOPT webinar presentations have
been captured on CD and now available to own!
Only $15.00 each includes tax & shipping

Own the entire 7-Disc collection for $85.00 (#1100)

PowerPoint slides & images
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#1101 Tough Questions, No Easy Answers: Some Useful Tips for Raising Hurt Kids with Deena McMahon

#1102 Back to School with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder with Kari Fletcher

#1103 Silent Night: Calming the Holidays for Children with Sensory and Neurological Differences with Kari Fletcher

#1104 The Mosaic: When Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD) Meets Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) with Deena McMahon and Wendylee Raun

#1105 Great Ideas for Increasing Biculturalism in Transracial Families with Robert O’Connor

#1106 Avoiding Power Struggles & Healing Hearts: Responsive Parenting to Engage the Reactive Child with Paul Buckley

#1107 Practical Strategies for Helping Troubled Adopted Children with Complex Histories: Focus On Anger Issues with Dr. Richard J. Delaney

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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To pay by credit card (Visa/MasterCard), please contact Anne Johnson at 612-746-5122 from 10AM to 4PM Monday through Friday.

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amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

Dave is a KARA volunteer intern from Century College and an occasional author on this site;

The Positive Effects of Child-Parent Centers on Education
By Dave Mast

Few problems facing children of all ages have been discussed as often as that of substandard education. More specifically, the American education system has been under attack from a number of sources.
However, the situation has yet to improve, possibly because the programs that work are not highlighted, instead only those that have failed are.

How bad has the situation in the United States become? Roughly 18% of children are not familiar with the basic rules of printing or writing. However, when looking at children with mothers who did not obtain their high school diplomas, this number increased drastically to 32%. In contrast, only 8% of children with mothers who have college degrees struggle with the basic rules of writing (Siegel & Welsh, 2006, p. 336).

The seriousness of the state of America’s education system can be demonstrated by looking at the effects, both short and long-term, that the failure of the system can have on a child. For example, the annual income that a juvenile can expect to earn as an adult is significantly lower if he or she drops out of high school. For adults 18-65 years old, the average annual income of high school dropouts is only $20,000, compared to $30,000 for those who graduate from high school or obtain their GED (Siegel & Welsh, 2006, p. 336).

A grimmer example of the effects that unsuccessful education can have on children is related to criminal activity. Though 74% of non-offenders graduated from high school, only 9% of chronic offenders obtained their diplomas. Another look at the subject shows that less than 40% of incarcerated felons in America completed 12 or more years of education. In contrast, 80% of the general population has completed the same level of education.

More important than identifying the effects that educational failure can have on children is the need to determine which programs are effective in stopping such a downward spiral and making them available to more American children. Arguably one of the best programs to date was started in Chicago in 1967 and uses what are known as Child-Parent Centers (CPCs). CPCs are located in low income areas in the Chicago public school system, and are available for children to start at three to five years of age.

Through parental involvement, the children enrolled in CPCs are able to develop reading, writing, and math skills, while their parents learn about topics related to child growth, development, health, safety, and nutrition (Chicago Public Schools, 2010).

The benefits reaped from enrollment in CPCs have been demonstrated in a number of studies involving juveniles and adults who received educational enrichment from the program. One such study was conducted by Reynolds, Temple, Robertson, and Mann in 2001. This study compared a group of adults who had completed an educational program at a CPC prior to entering kindergarten with a group whose members had not been enrolled in a CPC.

Through the use of justice system records, educational records, and family surveys, the study obtained the following results: CPC graduates enjoyed a 29% higher rate of high school completion, a 41% lower rate of placement in special education, and a 40% reduction in grade retention (the need to repeat a grade or course). Similarly, those in the study who attended a CPC had a 33% lower rate of juvenile arrest, 42% reduction in the rate of arrest for violent offenses, and a 51% lower rate of child maltreatment by their parents (Reynolds, et al, 2001).

The sustained success of the Child-Parent Centers in Chicago offers some hope to areas with struggling rates of high school completion and kindergarten readiness. For example, in Minneapolis, the rate of kindergarten readiness for students in 2006 and 2007 were only 57% and 59%, respectively (City of Minneapolis, 2010). Kindergarten readiness is a measurement of the students’ abilities in the areas of counting, vocabulary, listening, and alphabetical understanding.

Those who are not considered “kindergarten ready” may experience considerable difficulty keeping up with their classmates as their education progresses. Thus, the implementation of programs such as Child-Parent Centers can help youth who otherwise would struggle with their education and prevent them from turning to delinquent behavior as they grow older.

References
Chicago Public Schools. (2010). Child Parent Center (CPC). Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Preschools/Pages/Childparentcenter.aspx
City of Minneapolis. (2010). Minneapolis kindergarten readiness. Retrieved August 7, 2010, from http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/results/kindergarten.asp
Reynolds, A. Temple, J., Robertson, D., & Mann, E. (2001). Age 21 Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Title I Chicago Child-Parent Center Program. Retrieved July 25, 2010, from http://www.waisman.wisc.edu/cls/cbaexecsum4.html
Siegel, L., & Welsh, B. (2006). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

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Just like investing in the stock market or tax increment financing, putting money into early childhood programs brings solid financial and social returns back into a community.

As a negative example, just look at states and nations that have not (failing schools, filled prisons, high crime, poverty, preteen pregnancies, & unsafe communities).

At every level, this state has benefited from a smart, educated workforce that created opportunities (out of genius and thin air) with lasting impact.

Medical alley, which has had a huge impact on this state’s fiscal well being, launched giant successful med tech companies and would not have done nearly so well without the very smart people that came through this states many fine schools and school programs because they were important at the time and well funded.

Children in Minnesota have had a friend and champion in Art Rolnick, who well understands Pliny’s 2500 year old observation, “What we do to our children, they will do to our society”.

It is easy to see the relationship between healthy, adjusted children and productive citizens.

Healthy, adjusted children do well in school and go on to lead lives that contribute to the well being of our community (and of course, the opposite is just as true).

There is no return on investment from children that we abandon in our system and the cost of crime and incarceration is a triple negative that can cost our state for a lifetime (five hundred million dollars for prisons in MN this year does not include the medical costs, the cost of crime, fear, or blighted neighborhoods). The relationship between success in school and crime and preteen pregnancy is well established.

Art refers to medical costs driving state deficits. A growing body of evidence from the medical community proves that the chronic disease and medical costs of at risk children is another extreme cost to our communities (www.avahealth.org – this site is worth spending some time on)

I met Art Rolnick a few years ago when he graciously allowed me to use his work (as chapter five) in the writing of my book INVISIBLE CHILDREN.

It was my purpose to draw attention to the behavior problems and learning ability that I see in abused and neglected children that continue to negatively impact our schools and later on, the safety of our communities.

Art’s Federal Reserve Board research clearly demonstrates the high return on investment in children (8% to 16%)

There is even a higher return on investment for Invisible Children (three million children are reported to child protection services in this nation each year in this nation) to make them ready to learn and prepare them for a place in our community.

These are the children I continue to watch and hope for as budgets and services are cut and policy makers think they are saving money by not investing in programs that could change the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

On top of all this positive financial and socially important evidence, it is the right thing to do.

“Rolnick has been sounding the alarm about early ed since 2003… Little kids don’t vote…Early ed has a champion in Rolnick. Now it needs one in the Governors office”.

Lori Sturdevant: Art Rolnick’s six bullet points for state success

Rolnick: Minnesota should target spending on high-return services — like early education.

By LORI STURDEVANT, Star Tribune
Last update: July 3, 2010 – 5:53 PM

Art Rolnick’s economics wisdom would be worth hearing during an election-year summer, even if he weren’t about to end 25 years as senior vice president and director of research at the Minneapolis Fed.

But his visit to the Star Tribune last week was pegged to his pending move down river. Accordingly, news before wisdom: On July 30, Rolnick will leave his perch at the beautiful Federal Reserve Bank just north of the Falls of St. Anthony. Sometime in September, he’ll be ensconced just south of the falls as codirector of the Humphrey Institute’s Human Capital Research Collaborative, with an emphasis on early education.

That means that one of Minnesota’s best sources of research-based advice about how to keep this state prosperous won’t be gone long. But candidates for governor and the Legislature — and the voters who will evaluate them — would benefit now from a dose of Rolnick’s thinking. As is his wont, he cheerfully obliged:

•Education has been key to Minnesota’s success. “Sometime in the early 1950s, we started to pour money into education. Today, we’re one of the most educated states in the country. This is more than just a correlation. It’s causality. Human capital investment in education is what helps to create strong economies.

“The education premium — the increased lifetime earnings if you get a college degree rather than just a high school diploma — used to be 40 percent. It’s now 70, 80, some have it as high as 100 percent, and growing. The market is telling us something: As our economy has progressed, human capital is a critical ingredient to economic growth.”

•The Great Recession is confirming the value of Minnesota’s education spending. “Minnesota’s unemployment right now is 7 percent, well below the national average. I attribute that to having an active and highly educated workforce. Relative to the nation, we shine.

“Are taxes too high?” is the wrong question. “The question should be, are we providing high-quality public goods at the least cost? There are certain public goods which the market fails to produce enough of — education, clean air, safety. Any economy needs these public goods in order to progress.

“All taxes distort. We know taxes are a problem. Nevertheless, if you are getting a high public return, that’s an argument for tax-and-spend. … I have no trouble with a relatively high-tax state that produces really good public services. I would argue that Minnesota has been that for years, and we have one of the best economies in the world.”

•Capital is more mobile now — but the need for government services is also greater now. “Businesses don’t want to locate in areas with high crime and poor educational systems.”

•The next governor and Legislature need to rigorously prioritize spending. “We have to make sure that the high-return public investments are funded. What’s driving our deficits at the state level are medical costs.

“We’ve got to get more disciplined about controlling that. We’re going to have no choice.

“I wouldn’t say ‘Don’t raise taxes.’ But you can’t raise them too far above other states. I’ve supported expanding the sales tax to clothing in a progressive way. There are ways to reformulate the tax system to make it more efficient.”

•Minnesota has been missing the biggest public investment opportunity — early education. “We’re way under-investing in early education. There’s all kinds of research to say that if you provide a healthy environment for our children starting as early as prenatal, so that kids when they start kindergarten are healthy and cognitively ready and socially ready to learn, our children are much more likely to be successful in life. The return we’ve calculated for this is extraordinary. Yet we’ve hardly invested in it. … Other states are passing us by.”

• • •

Rolnick has been sounding an alarm about early ed since 2003. The results to date are more public awareness of the issue and an exciting pilot program involving 625 parents in St. Paul, sponsored by the privately funded Minnesota Early Learning Foundation.

And too little else.

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amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

As a guardian ad Litem in the U.S., I often found medical professionals unresponsive to the violence and dysfunction responsible for the condition of the child before them.

In the U.S. there is an organization trying to change that; The Academy on Violence and Abuse, www.avahealth.org is working diligently to better educate the medical profession about the signs of abuse and how to respond effectively.

Visit the Academy’s website and watch their videos, it is compelling.

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amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

ScienceDaily (Sep. 4, 2008) — Better guidance is urgently needed for doctors in child protection cases to prevent them from being deterred from acting to protect children, says an editorial on the British Medical Journal website.

Writing in response to recent high profile cases such as that of Sir Roy Meadow, which have highlighted “the crisis of confidence” developing between the General Medical Council (GMC) and paediatricians, David Foreman and Juliet Williams call for better guidance to prevent doctors from being deterred from raising concerns about child abuse and to restore confidence in child protection processes.

They point out that the number of complaints against paediatricians related to child abuse work increased by more than 500% between 1995 and 2003.

In addition, since 2003, registrations of children for emotional and sexual abuse have increased while those for physical and sexual abuse have declined. This, they say, suggests that doctors may be avoiding work related to abuse for which more detailed physical examinations are needed.

According to the authors, part of the problem is that there is a basic confusion in doctors’ duties regarding child protection. Medical law still states that doctors have a duty of care to both the parent and the child, but current paediatric professional guidance incorrectly applies the Children Act principle that the welfare of the child must be placed over all other considerations. In fact, this only applies to the courts, when they make a decision governed by that Act.

Therefore, in child protection cases, doctors have conflicting duties both to the child and to the parents who may not feel that doctors are acting in their best interests, particularly if they are suspects and if retrospectively no abuse is detected. This situation worsens if the doctor is later required to act as an expert witness in court.

Recent hostile media campaigns have added to the pressure on doctors by making it less likely that the GMC will dismiss high profile cases because its duty is to protect the public and also the reputation of medicine while maintaining public confidence in the profession, say the authors.

So what can be done to reinstate confidence in child protection processes and prevent a reduction in child protection?

The authors call on the GMC and other professional bodies to issue more specific guidance for doctors on how to manage these conflicting duties of care in child protection cases.

They also suggest that complaints against professionals in child protection cases should be subject to independent scrutiny before they are referred to their professional bodies.

To avoid unwarranted public criticism the public also need to be better educated about child protection work, so that the dual role of doctors in these cases is better understood, they conclude.

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

BMJ-British Medical Journal (2008, September 4). Better Guidance Urgently Needed For Doctors In Child Protection Cases, Say Experts. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 26, 2010, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/09/080904215617.htm

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amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

Share your comments here;

25% of U.S. high school grads are functionally illiterate upon graduation, our drop out rates are the worst in the industrialized world.

America is sending juveniles into adult prisons at alarming rates. By privatizing service providers, overwhelming government service agencies, & not providing resources we are abandoning children at an institutional level.

Many third world nations treat prenatal care more seriously than we do. There are no industrial nations that suffer the sexually transmitted disease rates or early pregnancy rates that America does.

Talking to the people at The Academy on Violence and Abuse http://www.avahealth.org/ very important things have become clear to me;

1. Child abuse impact children for life. Chronic illness and early death are significant within the population of abused and neglected children as they age.

2. Dr Bruce Perry’s research indicates that 25% of all American’s will be classified as “special needs” within a generation if the mental health aspects are not addressed in a direct and meaningful way.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have seen the evidence of the Academy’s research at a very personal level. I have lost friends and now know why.

Mental health becomes all important when you work with the population of abused children and understand the concept of violence, sex abuse, and trauma as it applies to two and three year olds (and what it will mean to them for the rest of their lives).

Children become citizens. Healthy citizens lead normal productive lives and are a benefit to society.

Children born into unhealthy homes and poor resources, are abandoned, abused, or ignored, end up in juvenile justice, criminal justice, pregnant without the ability to parent (just like their parent) lead painful lives and are a problem for society.

There is NO percentage is the communal abandonment of our children (it is sinking our nation).

What you do to your children, they will do to your society (Pliny – 2500 years ago)

Let’s all agree to support child friendly programs and legislation (even if it costs money and takes effort).

*We live in a time when newsrooms don’t have budgets to adequately follow complicated stories, like child protection, adoption, foster care & the other very serious issues that social workers, educators, parents & other service providers must study deeply to manage abused and neglected children.

A brief interview covering the death of a child in child protection leads to a short news story making a social worker look inadequate (or worse) bringing outrage from a community, and even less support for an already overburdened department of human services. Almost no attention is paid to the lack of resources, low salaries, and patchwork system that holds together the millions of children and workers across this nation.

When a baby is found in a dumpster, too many of us are not trained to dig down deep for compassion and understanding and ask ourselves what we could do to prevent this. Just where could we put more and better resources? Who could I call to show support for programs supporting pregnant preteen moms?

Our media response quite often drives us to an opposite response of quick anger and blaming, and even less compassion and support for our already overworked social workers, foster care providers, educators and everyone else in the system.

It is telling to note that we were in the top five as a nation in the quality of life indices for over twenty years among the 24 industrialized nations with 200 year democracies and now we don’t compare ourselves to them (but to the 90 or so “emerging nations”).

We desperately need to agree that children in need of services will receive them. The cost is minimal as compared to their expense in crime, prisons and jails over their lifetimes and is now well documented.

How to deal with a media that does not have resources to adequately report the details that lead to the baby in the dumpster, drowned in the bathtub, or 7 year old that hung himself?

My suggestion is to change the rule social workers are taught during their training from “never talk about your work outside of work” to “use your own judgement, be legally and personally discreet, but feel free to discuss the nature of child protection, the circumstance that are common to you in your work, and by all means, the needs you see not being met in the lives of abused and neglected children”.

As it is today, abused and neglected children have no voice in the terribly abusive homes they are raised in nor the court system once they are removed from those homes.

Some of us, preferably some of us educated in the study of the issues; social workers, health and mental health providers, and others close and sympathetic to abused and neglected children, needs to give these children a voice in their own lives other than a Media that has to sell itself with “if it bleeds it leads”.

*I’m not blaming anyone. Newspapers don’t have money to pay people, the system is what it is. There are many great reporters trying to do good work, but it is an uphill slog against terrific odds. This is a complicated topic that does not lend itself to the type of news we have prepared American citizens to comprehend.

Kids At Risk Action needs your support for its successful launch of televised public service announcements building awareness to the issues surrounding child abuse.

In collaboration with award winning Salo of Finland, KARA is working to create and place ads on national TV.

These ads will reach millions and create interest and understanding of this important and often misunderstood subject.

Contact KARA with your questions and support. Please contact us with your questions, referrals, and donations.

The KARA team.

ps… pass this on to those you think might appreciate the opportunity;

When: Thursday, June 17th
Registration: 8:30 a.m.
Training: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Mystic Mystice Lake Casino, Shakopee MN
Cost: $40 Standard, $30 JJC Community Member, $30 Student Rate
Scholarships available

Targeted Audience: Policy makers, professionals and practitioners in education, the court system, law enforcement, corrections, human services, community-based organizations, mental and chemical health, parents, youth, advocates, elected officials and others.

Presenter:
Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D. is the Senior Fellow of the ChildTrauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston that promotes innovations in service, research and education in child maltreatment and childhood trauma (www.ChildTraumaAcademy.org). Dr. Perry is the author with Maia Szalavitz of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing, a book based on his work with maltreated children. Over the last twenty years, Dr. Perry has been an active teacher, clinician and researcher in children’s mental health and the neurosciences holding a variety academic positions.

Dr. Perry was on the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago School of Medicine from 1988 to 1991. From 1992 to 2001, Dr. Perry served as the Trammel Research Professor of Child Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

During this time, Dr. Perry also was Chief of Psychiatry for Texas Children’s Hospital and Vice-Chairman for Research within the Department of Psychiatry. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Perry served as the Director for Provincial Programs in Children’s Mental Health for the Alberta Mental Health Board. He continues to serve as Senior Consultant to the Ministry of Children’s Services in Alberta, Canada.

Dr. Perry has conducted both basic neuroscience and clinical research. His neuroscience research examined the effects of prenatal drug exposure on brain development, the neurobiology of human neuropsychiatric disorders, the neurophysiology of traumatic life events and basic mechanisms related to the development of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain.

His clinical research and practice has focused on high-risk children – examining long-term cognitive, behavioral, emotional, social and physiological effects of neglect and trauma in children, adolescents and adults. This work has been instrumental in describing how childhood experiences, including neglect and traumatic stress, change the biology of the brain – and, thereby, the health of the child.

A focus of his clinical research over the last ten years has been focused on integrating concepts of developmental neuroscience and child development into clinical practices. This work has resulted in the development of clinical practices and programs working with maltreated and traumatized children.

The ChildTrauma Academy’s programs are in partnership with multiple sectors of the community and in context of public-private partnerships with the goal of promoting positive change within the primary institutions that work with high risk children such as child protective services, mental health, public education and juvenile justice.

His experience as a clinician and a researcher with traumatized children has led many community and governmental agencies to consult Dr. Perry following high-profile incidents involving traumatized children. These include the Branch Davidian siege, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Columbine school shootings, the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Katrina and Rita hurricanes.

Dr. Perry is the author of over 300 journal articles, book chapters and scientific proceedings and is the recipient of numerous professional awards and honors, including the T. Berry Brazelton Infant Mental Health Advocacy Award, the Award for Leadership in Public Child Welfare and the Alberta Centennial Medal.

He has presented about child maltreatment, children’s mental health, neurodevelopment and youth violence in a variety of venues including policy-making bodies such as the White House Summit on Violence, the California Assembly and U.S. Committee on Education. Dr. Perry has been featured in a wide range of media including National Public Radio, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS News and the Oprah Winfrey Show.

His work has been featured in documentaries produced by Dateline NBC, 20/20, the BBC, Nightline, CBC, PBS, as well as dozen international documentaries. Many print media have highlighted the clinical and research activities of Dr. Perry including a Pulitzer-prize winning series in the Chicago Tribune, US News and World Report, Time, Newsweek, Forbes ASAP, Washington Post, the New York Times and Rolling Stone.

Dr. Perry, a native of Bismark, North Dakota, was an undergraduate at Stanford University and Amherst College. He attended medical and graduate school at Northwestern University, receiving both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. Dr. Perry completed a residency in general psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Chicago.

Background
This event is part of a two-year initiative to provide in-person and webinar cross-systems training to policy makers and practitioners in Minnesota’s juvenile justice system.

Funding for this initiative comes from the Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and partner organizations, allowing for high quality cross-systems training at a minimal cost to participants.

We will be applying for continuing education credits.

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Wow. This is a heartfelt and logical pooling of talent and concern that could make a world of difference to a world full of adoptees.

Best wishes to everyone in this grand new venture. Read their newsletter;

Executive Director:

Minnesota Adoption Resource Network (MARN) proudly debuts AHA, Adoptees Have Answers, a unique program funded by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, to provide adoptee-to-adoptee training, connections and resources. AHA supports a life experience that is often mythologized, pathologized and romanticized but rarely understood. AHA relies on new research findings that, in the evolving field of adoption, adopted persons are the experts. As MARN celebrates 30 years of advocacy in a state with a rich history of “firsts” in adoption, the premiere of AHA is both fitting and welcomed.

Mary Martin Mason, Minnesota Adoption Resource Network

In This Issue
From the Program Manager
AHA Mission and Beliefs
What AHA Provides
Key Research–Why Adoptee Perspective?
Meet the Staff
AHA’s First Webinar
Call for Submissions
Minnesota Adoptees Release New Book
Scholarship Program for Youth Adopted from Foster Care
Minnesota Adoptee Comes Home to Humor
AHA Advisory Group

From the Program Manager

We at Adoptees Have Answers, and many others who imagined and inspired its vision, are very pleased to welcome you to our new Minnesota adoptee community space. Rooted in current research and hosted by an all-adoptee staff and Advisory Group, AHA becomes another Minnesota ‘first’ in adoption — a live and virtual community designed by adoptees as a safe environment for seeking and sharing answers and connecting with other adoptees. Whether you’re joining us as a newsletter contributor, webinar participant, blogger, support group member, event attendee, service user or provider, your ideas and stories will ’stick to the wall.’ Be sure to keep checking our website at http://aha.mn, now under development, as we continually add networking tools and broadcast information that you provide. Because you, the adoptees, are the experts.

Kate Ingalls-Maloney, Project Manager

AHA Mission and Beliefs

Our Mission
To promote connections among
adopted individuals of all ages,
ethnicities and adoption types while maximizing their lifelong welfare and self-fulfillment

Our Beliefs

We believe that being adopted has lifelong consequences for those who are adopted
We believe that adoptees benefit from connecting with other adoptees in a variety of ways
We believe that adoptees are the experts in adoption
We believe that others benefit from the knowledge and wisdom of adopted individuals

What AHA Provides

An array of opportunities for adoptee-to-adoptee connections
A website featuring resources for adopted individuals
Online networking and discussion tools
A master calendar of adoptee-focused events in Minnesota
A tollfree AdopteeLine for general information inquiries and
First Responder calls — 877-966-2727
Adoptee-facilitated support groups
Live events honoring adopted individuals and groups of all
ages and background

Key Research — Why Adoptee Perspective

In November 2009, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute published a groundbreaking study entitled Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption. The study of 500 adoptees constitutes the broadest and most in-depth study of adult adoptive identity to date. Among other things, the study states that adoption is a significant aspect of identity for adoptees throughout the lifespan, that race and ethnicity are of central importance, and that the importance of these factors highlights the need for adoptees to have connections with other adoptees. Adoptee-to-adoptee connections offer support, information and role models. The study also points out that adoptees’ voices are the ones most often missing from examinations of identity in adoption, even though they are the experts on their own experiences.

AHA addresses both of these points by providing space in which adoptees can share their experiences in their own words, interact with adoptees from a wide range of backgrounds, and access resources that emphasize the adoptee as the arbiter of his or her own experience.

Meet the Staff

Julia Decker, Program Coordinator
Korean adoptee, BA in Asian Studies, has worked and lived abroad in China, Taiwan and Spain, fluent in Mandarin and Spanish, extensive volunteer work with Children’s Home Society & Family Services and Catholic Charities.

Anne Johnson, Program Communication Specialist
Korean adoptee, BA in Communication, eight years’ experience in presentation and seminar development, experience with adoption and children’s mental health issues, knowledge of adoption law.

AHA’s First Webinar in 12–Part Series

SAVE THE DATE — Thursday, April 22, 2010

Please join the AHA Staff and nationally recognized adoption researcher, Adam Pertman, for our first webinar, Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 12:00 noon CST. The webinar, Adoptees Have Answers: Enlisting the Experts, will feature an overview of the new AHA Program by AHA Staff and an in-depth summary of the adoption research that inspired it — ‘Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Healthy Identity Formation in Adoption,’ conducted by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute.

Registration
For this webinar, you will need to register in advance of the presentation date by contacting Anne Johnson at 612.746.5122. In the future you will be able to register online directly through our website. The cost of attending is $20.00.

About the Presenter
Adam Pertman is Executive Director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a national nonprofit and pre-eminent research, policy and education organization in its field. Author of the groundbreaking book, Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America, and Associate Editor of Adoption Quarterly, Pertman has contributed to many articles on adoption and other family-related issues and has delivered hundreds of keynotes, trainings and other presentations both in the United States and abroad. He is widely quoted in the news media including the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Miami Herald, and National Public Radio, and has ‘Today’ and ‘Nightline.’

Prior to his work in adoption, Pertman was a senior journalist with The Boston Globe for two decades, covering a wide range of domestic and international topics, and was ultimately nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by The Boston Globe for his extensive and eloquent work in adoption. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and two children.

Next AHA Webinar
Watch for upcoming announcements on our next webinar — Minnesota Orphan Train Riders: Reflections on Adoption Over the Lifespan. This webinar will feature orphan train riders currently living in Minnesota and be offered in conjunction with a live event to honor these individuals.

Call for Submissions

AHA is very interested in publishing your adoption-related art work — visual and word art — in subsequent issues. If you would like to submit a piece for publication, please email it to j.decker@aha.mn with the words ‘Newsletter Submission’ in the subject line.
Note: Please send images in .jpg/.jpeg format. Written pieces should be limited to 250 words and submitted as MS Word documents or written directly into the body of an email message. We are looking forward to your creative output.

Minnesota Adoptees Release New Book

In the portrait book HERE: A Visual History of Adopted Koreans in MInnesota, Korean adoptees Kim Jackson and Hee Won Lee tell the stories of some of Minnesota’s many Korean adoptees through vivid photographs and excerpts from oral histories. On Saturday, April 17, 2010, both authors will appear at Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis for a book signing and release, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 pm. The signing will include a reception, with a Korean drumming performance by Shinparam. The event is presented by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Series, sponsored by the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, and is free and open to the public.

Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Ave S
Minneapolis, 55408
612.871.4444

Scholarship Program for Youth Adopted from Foster Care

The Children’s Action Network and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption have created a national scholarship program, called Fostering a Future, to benefit youth adopted from foster care who want to pursue higher education. Applications are being accepted until Tuesday, April 20, 2010 for the program, which is sponsored by Capital One. Applicants must have been adopted from the U.S. foster care system after the age of 13, be graduating high school seniors, maintain (or improve) a qualifying grade point average throughout their senior year, and demonstrate financial need. For more information or to access an application, go to: http://www.childrensactionnetwork.org/scholarship.htm

Minnesota Adoptee Comes Home to Humor

Korean adoptee and nationally known comedian, Amy Anderson, will be appearing this month at The Joke Joint in Bloomington. Showtimes are 8:00 pm on Thursday, April 22, 8:00 pm and 10:30 pm on Friday, April 23, and 7:30 pm and 10:00 pm on Saturday, April 24. The Joke Joint is located at 2300 E. American Boulevard in Bloomington (the old Thunderbird Hotel). Tickets are $8 for Thursday night, and $14 for Friday and Saturday, and can be purchased online.

Adoptees Have Answers
Minnesota Adoption Resource Network
430 Oak Grove Street, Suite 404
Minneapolis, MN 55403

General inquiries:
info@aha.mn
612.746.5133
Fax: 612.861-7112

AHA Advisory Group

The AHA Advisory Group is comprised of ten distinguished adult adoptees from diverse ethnic backgrounds and adoption types. Each has contributed professionally to the field of Adoption in addition to having the life experience and wisdom of being adopted. AHA is privileged to have guidance from this group of adoptees.

Michele Benson
Adoptee, retired educator, support group facilitator in Duluth, MN (not pictured)

Julie Hart
Korean adoptee, adoption social worker

Jae Ran Kim
Korean adoptee, nationally known adoption and child welfare trainer

Hei Kyong Kim
Adoptee, psychologist with Indian Health Board, child trauma and adoption trainer (not pictured)

Penny Needham
Adoptee, retired educator, middle school and adult adoptee support group faciliator

Robert O’Connor
Adoptee, Assistant Professor of Social Work at Metro State University, adoption specialist

Deborah Jiang Stein
Adoptee, writer and communications specialist, workshop facilitator for at-risk youth

Michelle Johnson
Adoptee, adoption trainer, Volunteer Coordinator for Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District, Guardian Ad Litem Program

Sandy White Hawk
Sicangu Lakota adoptee, founder of First Nations Orphans Association, adoption speaker

Mary Martin Mason
Adoptee, adoptive parent, nationally recognized adoption trainer, Director of Legislative Committee for American Adoption Congress

Kate Ingalls-Maloney
Adoptee, MA in Education, adoption trainer, Learning Technology specialist

The Advisory Group members will be profiled on the new AHA website at http://aha.mn.

Please stay tuned for that release in the coming days and weeks.
Quick Links

AHA Website

AHA on Facebook

AHA on YouTube

AHA on Twitter

MN ADOPT

Contact Info

AdopteeLine

612.746.5135
1.877.966.2727

General Inquiries
612.746.5133

info@aha.mn

http://aha.mn

To join our mailing list please e-mail info@aha.mn

Stay tuned for
AHA website

Send to people that you know to be interested in the topic.

Developed in 2004, the Child Advocacy Studies Minor started at Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota. The curriculum was designed to bring the goals of the National Child Protection Training Center to the field by providing students with real-world experience.

Learn more about the program by clicking on the links below:
I. What is the Child Advocacy Studies Minor?
II. How is CAST funded?
III. Why is CAST needed?
IV. How to Implement the CAST Curriculum at Your University

Join the program mailing list here.

Winona State Contact:
Angie Scott, Program Director
Maxwell Hall 269
507-457-2892
E-mail: ascott@winona.edu

America’s current public policy regarding at-risk children is an economic and moral failure:
“We reject community investment programs (implemented today by nearly all developed countries) that stress preventing the creation of at-risk children. Instead we assume colossal costs of corrective measures that mostly fail regardless of how earnestly they are pursued.”

The results of this undocumented policy are many:

1. A child is a work-in-process toward citizenship. A successful citizen adds $5 million of economic value to society in his/her life. If unsuccessful, that person instead costs society several million dollars in expenses. Therefore, the lost opportunity value between a success and a failure is somewhere between $5 and $10 million per child.

2. Young children are humiliated when they read below grade level. A wealthy society that rejects proven programs to avoid the humiliation of children is an immoral society.

3. Children who read by the third grade seldom are ever involved with the criminal justice system. Four of five incarcerated juvenile offenders read two years or more below grade, and a majority are functionally illiterate.

4. America has over two million prison inmates, the highest rate in the world and five to ten times that of European countries. Another five million Americans are involved in the criminal justice system for probation, parole, or supervision, all unproductive activities.

5. Several states forecast needed prison growth based on third grade reading scores. Our federal prisons are operating at 130% of capacity.

6. No industrial nation equals the United States in neglecting the basic needs of working families.

7. Minnesota’s under funded policy to assist low-income families for out of home child care has a waiting list of over 7000 families. This is a sham, not real policy.

When America isn’t fair, it doesn’t work. America is cheating its children.

High quality, universally eligible early childhood education and development similar to that now in place for decades elsewhere would solve the above problems. According to Minneapolis Federal Reserve researchers, no public sector investment of taxpayer money yields the high returns verified for early childhood education.

What are we waiting for?
Supporting Documentation

1. The $5 million lifetime per citizen contribution to America’s society is cited by author Jared Diamond in Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, page 504.

2. In his key-note speech at the Capitol on January 28, 2009, David Lawrence referred to young children who sense failure when unable to read like their classmates. This is equivalent to humiliation. Policy makers cannot pretend to be ignorant of brain development enhancing early childhood programs. The literature is full of relevant information and it is easy to find.

3. The correlation between reading deficiency and interaction with criminal justice is provided by David Lawrence in his key-note speech cited in number 2 above.

4. Prison population report by Pew Center on the States, Pew Charitable Trust.

5. Several states including California and Arizona use early grade test scores to assist in forecasting required prison capacity growth. Corrections Digest, April 12, 2002 reports Federal Prisons are 131% of design capacity.

6. Among the programs common in peer countries are 1) income of full-time employment provides families above-poverty living standard, 2) universal housing for all families with children, 3) universal health care, 4) paid maternity and parental leave for both parents with guarantee of return to previous job, 5) women’s guaranteed right to breastfeed at work, 6) universal pre-school child care, 7) guaranteed sick leave for illness and family care, minimum of 5 to 6 weeks of paid vacation, 9) taxpayer paid college tuition for qualifying students, 10) protection of children from predatory marketing by consumer product companies.

7. Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Day Care? Cut”, February 13, 2009, page 1.

This Early Childhood Education Manifesto was submitted to KARA by David Strand one year ago. It is even more important this year.

As a personal note to this post, I was required to be part of a court proceedings to remove children from a father whose key problem was that he could not afford day care.

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/11/01/what-we-do-to-our-children-they-will-do-to-our-society/


http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2010/02/19/day-care-in-america-ny-v-mn/

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2007/02/08/day-care-the-bargain/

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amy.rostronledoux@yahoo.com

Texas recently refused almost a billion dollars from the federal government to improve its school system. Texas has suffered the lowest graduation rates in the nation with the worst racial disparities.

Houston schools superintendent wrote at the time; “I have 100,000 kids in Houston who don’t read at grade level”.

Georgia education officials recently ordered investigations at 191 schools across the state where they found evidence of tampering on answer sheets for the state’s standardized achievement test.

The list of inner city schools struggling to educate the children of those who could not get to (or for reasons of loyalty, love, or ethics) decided not to, escape to the suburbs where the schools still function is long.

My old high school, Edison, built in 1922, graduates less than 50% of its students, its sister school across town has graduated less than 30% of its students for five years running.

As a nation, we know that high school dropouts have a far greater chance of preteen pregnancy, years of costly incarceration and leading dysfunctional lives that they pass on to their children (who will repeat this cycle).

25% of America’s graduating seniors are now functionally illiterate, and U.S. graduation rates are among the worst in the world.

Today, many states are increasing their percentage of spending on juvenile justice and criminal justice while maintaining or reducing spending on education.

New York and California have been spending about $250,000 per year per juvenile in their juvenile justice systems. MN has reached the half a billion dollar mark for maintaining its prison system this year after five years of double digit growth.

We are spending more on prisons than on schools and we are getting more accomplished criminals than good students.

“What we do to our children, they will do to our society”

Kids At Risk Action seeks information about what is happening in your community that impacts abused and neglected children.

Send us your stories.

Comment here, or privately; Info@invisiblechildren.org

Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/KidsAtRisk

I have posted what I think to be two well written perspectives of this issue. Please share your comments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/us/12schools.html
New York Times
Board’s Decision to Close 28 Kansas City Schools Follows Years of Inaction
By SUSAN SAULNY
Published: March 11, 2010

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Like so many other public school parents, Reshonda Sanders felt confused on Thursday as she tried to comprehend why nearly half of the schools here, including her own alma mater, are to close for good at the end of the year. As the mother of two high school students, she was well aware of the district’s struggles.

Ed Zurga/Associated Press
Kansas City, Mo. officials will close about half of its schools.
Related

Kansas City to Close Nearly Half Its Schools (March 11, 2010)
Room for Debate: Does the Size of a School Matter?
“But even so, I thought, Could they be serious? Close almost 30 schools, all at once?” said Ms. Sanders, 34. “That’s devastating for us. How did it get to be this bad? What were they doing for years and years so that something like this happens just like overnight?”

In her bafflement, Ms. Sanders is not alone. In the wake of the Kansas City school board’s decision to shutter 28 of its 61 schools, many people were left scratching their heads. While school closings as a result of demographic change and tight budgets are commonplace across the country, rarely does a system lose half of itself in one sweep.

The sudden move suggests a depth of dysfunction here that is rarely associated with Kansas City, a lively heartland town with a reputation for order. But a closer look at the school board’s recent history reveals a chaotic, almost nonfunctioning body that put off making tough choices and even routine improvements for generations. Experts said that in the board’s years of inaction is a cautionary tale for school districts everywhere.

“This is extraordinary,” said Jack Jennings, president of the Center on Education Policy, a research group in Washington. “The school board was dysfunctional for years. There was very poor governance for a long period of time, and it was like a revolving door with superintendents.”

Mr. Jennings also said the board was plagued with “a general unwillingness to face the facts” of the chaos it created.

Students have been leaving the Kansas City public schools in droves. Close to 18,000 students exited to better suburban districts or charter schools in the last 10 years alone. The student enrollment is now 17,400 children, who are mostly black and impoverished.

And achievement levels in the schools are abysmal: Fewer than a third of elementary students in the city schools read at or above grade level. And in most of the schools, fewer than a quarter of students are proficient at their grade levels.

Faced with a $50 million deficit in its $300 million budget, the district decided to close the schools. The plan also calls for the elimination of 700 of 3,000 jobs, including teaching positions.

Education experts praised the new schools superintendent, John Covington, who was hired in April from the Pueblo, Colo., school district where he was also superintendent, for pushing for change. A former principal and teacher, Dr. Covington spent months researching and writing the Right-Sizing plan, and managed to win a 5-to-4 majority from the board.

Previous superintendents had failed in similar efforts to downsize the district.

“He put a mountain of information out there with statistics, and people finally understood what was happening, even if they didn’t like it,” said Duane Kelly, who has been a school board member for 10 years and voted in favor of the closings. “It was time.”

The local teachers’ union agreed. “We have buildings that are half empty,” said Andrea Flinders, the union president. “We recognized that schools needed to be closed, but the board wasn’t willing. This board is different.”

If the schools had fallen into bankruptcy, as was predicted before the closings, the state would have seized control, and made changes as it saw fit.

In 2006, the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington-based coalition of the nation’s largest school districts, produced an extensive analysis of what was going wrong in the Kansas City schools. It concluded that the board wasted too much time on administrative trivia, its instructional program lacked “cohesion and forward momentum” and it had “no machinery” for intervening when students fell behind.

The council included advice in the report on how the schools could fix themselves, but little if any action appeared to have been taken as a result.

At times before Wednesday night’s vote, the board’s meeting threatened to fall into chaos, with members trading insults, not following rules of order and even crying. An angry audience shouted its general disapproval.

“This is too much, too fast,” said a parent, Carmen Edwards, after the vote.

Nakisha Eubanks, a mother of three students, said: “I don’t want my kids in this district, going through all this disruption. But I can’t move, and I don’t have transportation. So, this is it.”

Minneapolis Startribune.com March 8, 2010

Don Samuels, Chanda Baker, Sondra Samuels: As the teachers union digs in, it’s students who suffer
By DON SAMUELS, CHANDA BAKER, and SONDRA SAMUELS

On a personal level, union leaders such as Education Minnesota President Thomas Dooher no doubt care about our schools, teachers and communities. We all know many wonderful teachers in Education Minnesota’s ranks. They are our relatives, neighbors and friends.
Yet on issue after issue, Dooher stands defiantly in the school entrance, horn in hand, blocking any innovation that would lift black children from north Minneapolis out of the endless cycle of poverty and failure. Many leaders within the black community, including us, will not stand politely by and allow such injustice at the hands of Education Minnesota to happen any longer.

Only 34 percent of the Minneapolis district’s black students graduate from high school in four years, compared with almost 70 percent of whites, according to the latest state figures. Last year, only 8.6 percent of black students were proficient on state science tests, compared with 61.4 percent of white students.

Despite the crisis in our urban education system, Dooher publicly stated that he would rather lose hundreds of millions of dollars for our public schools than give up union positions on issues like performance pay and alternative teacher certification — strategies that President Obama supports for closing the achievement gap.

Well, Dooher got his wish last week, when Minnesota failed to become a finalist in the Race to the Top program and secure up to $250 million of the $4.35 billion competition. Make no mistake: Despite the public statement that “we’re obviously disappointed,” Dooher achieved his goal.

To their credit, almost 90 percent of Minnesota’s school districts and charter schools, as well as 28 union locals, including in Minneapolis and St. Paul, supported the president’s innovations, but it was not enough to override the state union’s opposition.

What is the union leader’s next target? Dooher opposes another proven innovation touted by the president — the alternative teacher certification bill under consideration in the Minnesota Legislature, which would widen the pool of qualified candidates entering the field from different paths and attract more minorities into the teacher ranks.

Minnesota has one of the largest achievement gaps in the nation, and we believe alternative teacher certification is one of the missing links as to why Minnesota’s urban core schools have not yet realized the success of many of their counterparts in other cities. Students trapped in consistently low-performing schools have been robbed of their right to a high-quality education and effective teachers. If the Legislature passes alternative teacher certification, it would open the pipeline to programs like Teach For America, which recruits top-notch teachers into high-needs classrooms.

Although Dooher has claimed otherwise, a growing body of extensive reputable research from the Urban Institute and others indicates that Teach For America teachers are as effective as veteran and fully certified teachers. On behalf of our struggling students, we need these talented individuals leading our kids to academic success.

We tout our predominantly white suburban schools as some of the best in the nation, which they are. Yet today the African-American, Hispanic and immigrant families living in north Minneapolis and many other neighborhoods in the urban core have few, if any, choices to send their children to quality schools that match our high-performing suburban schools.

Education Minnesota’s hollow defense of the status quo is a cynical, morally bankrupt agenda, which focuses more on protecting the adult members of teacher unions than protecting the interests of the state’s most vulnerable children. Dooher has become the last holdout for the failed status quo, one that has yielded no significant change to the achievement gap over the last three decades. His commitment to thwarting real reform has blocked every bridge that spans the racial and socioeconomic performance gap.

Other related works; Preparing for Prison? Inner-city Schools and the Extended Reach of Criminal Justice

http://www.allacademic.com/one/www/research/index.php?cmd=www_search&offset=0&limit=5&multi_search_search_mode=publication&multi_search_publication_fulltext_mod=fulltext&textfield_submit=true&search_module=multi_search&search=Search&search_field=title_idx&fulltext_search=%3Cb%3EPreparing+for+Prison%3F++Inner-city+Schools+and+the+Extended+Reach+of+Criminal+Justice%3C%2Fb%3E&PHPSESSID=fb5be97e8821beb4e1690544b38d298c

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/feb/17/social-services-to-feel-house-budget-cuts/

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/affordable_after-school_care_n.html

http://www.irp.wisc.edu/dispatch/2010/02/12/

http://www.edmondsun.com/local/x1834673907/Edmond-agency-sees-budget-cuts-growth-in-need

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/BOBMGAT17_20100217-195001/325011/

http://utahlegislaturewatch.org/2009/02/13/legislative-education-budget-committee-more-cuts-to-education-shorten-school-year/

http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/va._education_officials_decry_k-12_budget_cuts/41715/

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/gov_patersons_budget_plan_woul.html

Kids At Risk Action seeks information about what is happening in your community that impacts abused and neglected children.

Send us your stories.

Comment here, or privately; Info@invisiblechildren.org

Public policy at the time treated the Irish more like animals than people and their children were doomed to living lives of crime, prostitution, and destitution.

Jonathon Swift’s satirical theme was that Irish children would be better off dead than raised in such horrible and inescapable circumstances.

As a long time guardian ad-Litem, I have come to understand Swift’s rage at the cruelties a community can pile on to poor children.

The idea that America’s poor working families don’t deserve education, health care, & safe homes for their children in the richest nation in the world is a cruel and unsupportable position.

The other industrialized nations have figured out that caring for their youngest citizens guarantees healthy adults and productive communities. We now don’t rank anywhere near the top in the majority of quality of life indices among the 24 industrialized nations.

America can’t quit building prisons and filling them with juveniles and preteen moms. We continue to quit subsidizing daycare, early childhood programs, healthcare for the poor, & education funding, while at the same time listening more and more to the mean spirited philosophies of radio and TV hosts that blame the nations ills on people that have (and always will have) the least.

The economic arguments of caring for children are all in favor of creating productive citizens by early intervention and early childhood development. It actually costs a great deal more to continue to punish the weakest and most vulnerable among us.

Are we a community without compassion?

KARA is seeking a 21st Century Modest Proposal. If you are a writer and given to challenges, please read Swift’s “Proposal” below, and write your own as you see it applying to American children & include it as a comment, or send it to Info@invisiblechildren.org

A Modest Proposal

For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland
From Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

By Jonathan Swift (1729)

About this text.

It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.

But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets.

”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled …”

As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true, a child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year, with little other nourishment; at most not above the value of 2s., which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.

There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.

The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.

I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.

I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.

I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.

I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.

I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.

I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.

Infant’s flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us.

I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar’s child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants; the mother will have eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.

Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.

As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs.

A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve; so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service; and these to be disposed of by their parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellent a friend and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured me, from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our schoolboys by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable; and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission be a loss to the public, because they soon would become breeders themselves; and besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very unjustly), as a little bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, however so well intended.

But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty; and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty’s prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court, in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who without one single groat to their fortunes cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at playhouse and assemblies in foreign fineries which they never will pay for, the kingdom would not be the worse.

Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation of so grievous an encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter, because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And as to the young laborers, they are now in as hopeful a condition; they cannot get work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a degree that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labor, they have not strength to perform it; and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.

I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance.

For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our most dangerous enemies; and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.

Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.

Thirdly, Whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old and upward, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a-piece per annum, the nation’s stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum, beside the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.

Fourthly, The constant breeders, beside the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.

Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns; where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good eating: and a skilful cook, who understands how to oblige his guests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.

Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the public, to their annual profit instead of expense. We should see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.

Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barreled beef, the propagation of swine’s flesh, and improvement in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables; which are no way comparable in taste or magnificence to a well-grown, fat, yearling child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a lord mayor’s feast or any other public entertainment. But this and many others I omit, being studious of brevity.

Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.

I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and ’twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.

Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, ’till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.

But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging England. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.

After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author or authors will be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, as things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, there being a round million of creatures in human figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock would leave them in debt two millions of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession to the bulk of farmers, cottagers, and laborers, with their wives and children who are beggars in effect: I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold as to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.

I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.

The End

Note: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), author and satirist, famous for Gulliver’s Travels (1726) and A Modest Proposal (1729). This proposal, where he suggests that the Irish eat their own children, is one of his most drastic pieces. He devoted much of his writing to the struggle for Ireland against the English hegemony.

KARA Note: In America today, there is a growing movement to blame the nations ills on poor people, at a time when resources are scarce this is not uncommon, but it is reprehensible. We are better than this.

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When the truth is not reported, the critical problem is not perceived and no steps are taken to correct the underlying core issues. Things can only get worse until the system is destroyed.

Operating on false information forces people to make choices based on lies, causing more terrible results and disruption and eventual failure in what was a functioning system (education, social work, courts, or any other institution).

What would have been accomplished had these people succeeded in hiding the failure rate of Georgia’s students?

The next generation of students would be lacking in knowledge and critical thinking skills (just like the adults responsible in the tampering, but a hair less intelligent). Would they continue the convention of hiding critical information from the community?

When would the system implode?

Let this be an example of why systems need to be transparent.

Bad results are good BECAUSE we see them and can do something about them.

Not teaching 21st century American children how to learn, read, and compete in school is a disaster at many levels. Not supporting educators, parents, children, and public policy in this endeavor has cost us greatly as a nation. http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2009/03/02/kara-action-group-manifesto-for-early-childhood-education/

A stark example of no (or false) reporting comes from my state, MN.

When I wrote the book, INVISIBLE CHILDREN in 2004, there were 897 cases of reported child sex abuse in the state. Obviously, not a huge issue (897 out of about 5 million people = l/10,000th).

But it was not true. If it were true, I personally knew of about fifty children that year that had been sexually molested, some terribly (2 of which had been suicidal) and I was only one of about five hundred guardian ad-Litems in the state.

If the crime is not reported, there simply is not a significant problem and the public will not respond for funding, or programs, or support for families to address the issue. What is not seen as a problem will not be dealt with.

For instance; I have observed the same man that kicked the 7 year old girl so hard that she went into convulsions (after 4 years of sexually abusing her) to be still in the family 11 years later abusing other very young children.

Children in this nation at this time are having a hard time getting the attention they need and we are not telling the truth about their conditions.

Not educating children is a terrible failure for any community. Not keeping children save from the trauma of sexual abuse is criminal.

We are living in a time of (not uncommon) of political chaos.

Texas just refused almost a billion dollars it could have used to help its students read at grade level (they don’t).

Each state needs to police itself and at the very least, back off on the politics when it comes to the children.

Protect them. Educate them. “what we do to our children, they will do to our society” Pliny, 2500 years ago.

Here are articles related to this discussion that will give perspective to the commonality of child sex abuse and programs that deal with it;

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2010/02/01/20-of-western-australia-child-abuse-is-sex-abuse/

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2010/01/24/crimes-against-children-study-new-hampshire-university/

http://www.invisiblechildren.org/2010/01/22/national-center-for-prosecution-of-child-abuse/

According to Geography Matters – Child Well-Being in the States Georgia ranks 42nd in infant mortality, 43rd in birth to teen moms, & 46th in child abuse deaths.

Georgia has ranked between 41st and 45th for many years among the states in education.

http://www.startribune.com/nation/84190787.html?elr=KArks:DCiUMEaPc:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUr

http://mlb.msg.com/article/0cPh4sU7rxeoO

http://www.epistle.ws/Georgia.html

http://www.everychildmatters.org/National/Resources/Geography-Matters.html

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If this article strikes you, please forward it to your groups and news organizations.

These conversations need to be had if things are to improve for children in this nation.

The bad news; As a nation, we know that high school dropouts have a far greater chance of preteen pregnancy, years of costly incarceration and leading dysfunctional lives that they pass on to their children.

Today, many states are increasing their percentage of spending on juvenile justice and criminal justice while maintaining or reducing spending on education. New York and California have been spending about $250,000 per year per juvenile in their juvenile justice systems. MN has reached the half a billion dollar mark for maintaining its prison system this year after five years of double digit growth.

The potential for finding new money for progressive new programs (no matter how successful) in this climate is slim.

What can we do?

Does any one here have a story of a successful approach within their own community?

Please share.

Read NY Times article;http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html

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For Students at Risk, Early College Proves a Draw
By TAMAR LEWIN
Published: February 7, 2010
Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times

Precious Holt, in class at SandHoke, resisted joining the program at first. “Now I’m excited,” she said, “because I’m a year ahead.”

When the bus arrives, she checks in with a guidance counselor and heads off to a day of college classes, blending with older classmates until 4 p.m., when she and the other seniors from SandHoke Early College High School gather for the ride home.

There is a payoff for the long bus rides: The 48 SandHoke seniors are in a fast-track program that allows them to earn their high-school diploma and up to two years of college credit in five years — completely free.

Until recently, most programs like this were aimed at affluent, overachieving students — a way to keep them challenged and give them a head start on college work. But the goal is quite different at SandHoke, which enrolls only students whose parents do not have college degrees.

Here, and at North Carolina’s other 70 early-college schools, the goal is to keep at-risk students in school by eliminating the divide between high school and college.

“We don’t want the kids who will do well if you drop them in Timbuktu,” said Lakisha Rice, the principal. “We want the ones who need our kind of small setting.”

Results have been impressive. Not all students at North Carolina’s early-college high schools earn two full years of college credit before they graduate — but few drop out.

“Last year, half our early-college high schools had zero dropouts, and that’s just unprecedented for North Carolina, where only 62 percent of our high school students graduate after four years,” said Tony Habit, president of the North Carolina New Schools Project, the nonprofit group spearheading the state’s high school reform.

In addition, North Carolina’s early-college high school students are getting slightly better grades in their college courses than their older classmates.

While North Carolina leads the way in early-college high schools, the model is spreading in California, New York, Texas and elsewhere, where such schools are seen as a promising approach to reducing the high school dropout rate and increasing the share of degree holders — two major goals of the Obama administration.

More than 200 of the schools are part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Early College High School Initiative, and dozens of others, scattered throughout the nation, have sprung up as projects of individual school districts.

“As a nation, we just can’t afford to have students spending four years or more getting through high school, when we all know senior year is a waste,” said Hilary Pennington of the Gates Foundation, “then having this swirl between high school and college, when a lot more students get lost, then a two-year degree that takes three or four years, if the student ever completes it at all.”

Most of the early college high schools are on college campuses, but some stand alone. Some are four years, some five. Most serve a low-income student body that is largely black or Latino. But all are small, and all offer free college credits as part of the high school program.

“In 27 years as a college president, this is just about the most exciting thing I’ve been involved in,” said John R. Dempsey, the president of Sandhills. “We picked these kids out of eighth grade, kids who were academically representative at a school with very low performance. We didn’t cherry-pick them. Their performance has been so startling that you see what high expectations can do.”

Initially, the prospect of two years of college at no cost was less appealing to Ms. Holt than to her mother, Simone Dean, an Army mechanic at nearby Fort Bragg.

“I didn’t want to do it, because my middle school friends weren’t applying,” Ms. Holt said. “I cried, but my mother made me do it.

“The first year, I didn’t like it, because my friends at the regular high school were having pep rallies and actual fun, while I had all this homework. But when I look back at my middle school friends, I see how many of them got pregnant or do drugs or dropped out. And now I’m excited, because I’m a year ahead.”

he nation’s early-college high schools are still new, it is too soon to say whether strapped states will be impressed enough to justify the extra costs of college tuition, college textbooks and academic support,

Related

A recent report from Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit group that is coordinating the Gates initiative, found that in 2008, the early-college schools that had been open for more than four years had a high school graduation rate of 92 percent — and 4 out of 10 graduates had earned at least a year of college credit.

With a careful sequence of courses, including ninth-grade algebra, and attention to skills like note-taking, the early-college high schools accelerate students so that they arrive in college needing less of the remedial work that stalls so many low-income and first-generation students. “When we put kids on a college campus, we see them change totally, because they’re integrated with college students, and they don’t want to look immature,” said Michael Webb, associate vice president of Jobs for the Future.

The first early-college high schools — Bard College at Simon’s Rock, a residential private liberal-arts college in Great Barrington, Mass., and Bard High School Early College, a public school in New York City — were selective schools intended to cure the boredom that afflicts many talented high school students.

“The philosophy behind the school was that the last two years of high school are not engaging, and we would set up something that would make them intellectually exciting.” said Ray Peterson, the principal of Bard High School Early College.

But at the City University of New York’s early-college schools, the emphasis is less on preventing the senior slump than on aligning high school with college.

“Our students are actually planning for college-level coursework from their first day in the school,” said Cass Conrad, executive director for school support and development at CUNY, which has a dozen early-college high schools. “And their teachers plan backwards from college, to make sure they’ll know what they need to be successful in college-level classes.”

In the pine woods of North Carolina, SandHoke students start in a small Hoke County school down the road from a turkey-processing plant, and begin traveling to the Sandhills campus, nestled among the golf courses of Moore County, only as seniors. Their first college class, in 10th grade, is a user-friendly communications course taught by Cathleen Kruska, a high-energy teacher who had them discussing job interviews, learning which kinds of questions are legally permissible and doing mock interviews.

Ms. Kruska teaches the same course to college students at Sandhills, and said the only difference was that the high school students were needier.

These days, aspirations run high. Ms. Holt, for example, is aiming for medical school. She was disappointed last semester to get three B’s and two A’s.

“That’s not what I was hoping for,” she said, “and I’m going to work harder this semester.”

Her high standards have affected the whole family.

“My 13-year-old is going to apply to SandHoke for next year,” Ms. Dean said. “And I’m actually learning from Precious. When I’m done with the military, I want to get my degree.”

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