Gina Magnanti Economics
Nowadays, it is considered acceptable to send a young person from a supportive, wealthy
family away to a residential boarding school. At the same time it is considered destructive to send a
young person from an unsafe, unhealthy home to a nurturing, educational, residential setting.
As a result of old orphanage stereotypes in the past, many residential education programs have
shut down during the past four or five decades. Most of these stereotypes weren't helped by such
examples as shown in Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist. Major newsmagazines supported these
popular stereotypes with turn-of-the-century pictures of pathetic orphanage residents on their covers.
The debate lasted only a few months. The critics claimed victory once again, and nothing was done.
The government has failed at taking care of children who find themselves unwanted because
their parents have given them up or died. There are now few education-focused, residential settings
available for young people, especially adolescents, who don't have homes that can support them nor
schools that can effectively teach them. However, there are tens of thousands of children who could
Unwanted children are condemned to constant dependency on individuals who are more
concerned with their perks and privileges than with children. The government rewards those who carry
out its programs for the number of children they take in, but it doesn't evaluate the quality of care.
Children are moved from one program to another each time people dream up some new way to get
This book gives a compelling case that unwanted children are much better cared for in the
private sector by orphanages run by churches or other charitable organizations. McKenzie grew up in
an orphanage and speaks passionately from his own
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