Summary of THE CHILDREN WHO WAIT : Marsha Traugot

UNIT SIX : WOMEN AND CHILDREN

THE CHILDREN WHO WAIT

ENGLISH | THE HERITAGE OF WORDS

Marsha Traugot

‘The Childern who wait’ is an essay written by Marsha Traugot. In this essay, she suggests reasons for a new trend in adoption in America. Now a wider verity of families can open their house to children who in the past would have been labeled unadoptable.

In the beginning of her essay she quotes an advertisement related to a five and half year’s old girl- Tammy. She is a handicapped black girl and she is beyond infancy. After giving her description Traugot carries out the history about adoption .Twenty years ago or until about 1960 the process of adoption was strict. If a child was not white that would not adopted. Adoption was done only of the child that was infant and healthy. A family having older siblings could not also take a child in adoption. Similarly, only middle or upper class childless white couples could adopt healthy white infants.

But in the last 20 years the field of adoption has undergone radical change because of various civil rights movement, birth control, changing moral and social science researches. The numbers of healthy infants available for adoption have reduced due to birth control, legalized abortion, changes in attitudes towards sexual behavior and marriage. Unwed mothers and teenagers could keep their babies with them without insult. Then there was scarcity of the healthy children people turned their attention to other children.

Child welfare specialists became increasingly concerned about other handicapped children. Black civil rights movement encouraged interracial adoption. So the number of children in foster care dramatically increased. It created disastrous results to the children sent in foster care. So the focus of the system was changed and the social workers started finding the ideal adoptive family. In the present time, the social workers also try to match the children with adoptive family. They evaluate the characteristics of the child and search a suitable (appropriate) family.

The essayist also says that in seeking to match child and family, the social worker must overcome his/her own attitudinal barriers .in the present time there are many adoption agencies that find the potential adoptive parents. These agencies look first to the families listed with them. If there are also no likely candidates the child can register with regional state of adoption exchange. Sometimes they also organize parties where children, workers and prospective parents meet informally. If the prospective family cannot be found to a child even after doing these processes to the child is advertised with the help of media. This technique has helped much to provide homes to the children who wait.

Because of the changes in attitudes in different aspects as well as in the field of adoption many children have got the supportive families and writer also hopes that Tammy will also get a warm supportive family life in the near future.