As I read this book, I couldn't help but be shocked at the things that happen to this character in his foster homes. Foster homes are supposed to be places where children are sent to protect them from their family who cannot or will not take proper care of them. In this book however, many of the homes that Zits is placed in abuse him or neglect him. Because of this I started to wonder just what the requirements were for a person to be a foster parent, and I was pretty unnerved by the very lax requirements I found.
What I found:
Here is a link to the Pennsylvania site on Foster Care. http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/ServicesPrograms/ChildWelfare/003676623.htm However, so you don't have to bother going to the site and the list is very short, I'm going to include it here.
- Be at least 21 years of age.
- Pass a medical examination that states the individual is physically able to care for children and is free from communicable disease.
- Pass screening requirements related to child abuse and criminal history clearances.
Frankly, I find this incredibly disturbing that these are the only requiremenst specified by the state of Pennsylvania. Some other counties have one or two more rules tacked on, but otherwise, this is the only screening that individuals are required to go through. I feel like I should mention that these screening tests are often no more involved than simply signing a consent form that allows child welfare access to your criminal records. Essentially they only want to know if you have been convicted of hurting kids in the past and that is as involved as it gets.
Because of the lax requirements, many of these people couldn't care less that the kids they are in charge of protecting exist. They are foster parents for only one reason: the monthly check. As a result these kids suffer neglect through their entire lives as they travel from home to home. Don't misunderstand, there are a few good foster parents, I'm sure, but with restrictions like these, the majority are bound to be people in it for the money.
My Interpretation/What this adds to our discussion:
We have discussed at length how adults percieve a child's naughtiness. This image, as we have discussed in class has gone from being infant depravity, to innocent childishness, to a natural stage that we all go through. Yet none of these definitions of naughtiness take into account when children are misbehaving, not because of some inherent "wildness" in them, but rather as a cry for help.
In Flight, Zits isn't an innocent who doesn't know what he's doing is wrong. He's definitely no "romantic" child. He wasn't born with all his issues and violence ingrained in his personality. He acts the way that he does because he desperately wants someone to care that he exists. He is trying to get that attention that is denied to him through each and every useless foster parent that he's pawned off on. Ultimately this system, which requires that the person in charge of a child's well-being only be healthy, 21, and not have a criminal record, has allowed this character to fall through the hypothetical cracks.
Here are a few questions to consider. Every time Zits gets in trouble, it is implied that he is arrested and put in jail again, but no one ever seems to wonder what it is about these homes he is living in that makes him want to strike out against his foster parents. Why is it that virtually all the characters (there are a few exceptions) simply write him off as another lost cause? Is a system that allows foster children to be placed in poor family environments (where they suffer neglect or abuse) not encouraging the children in these environments to behave badly or to become juvenile delinquents? In a sense, is it not the adults who become responsible for the actions of children like Zits rather than the children themselves?
11 comments:
If you don't mind my asking, just out of curiosity, what were some of the other foster care requirements?
It's a shame how children can be neglected in foster care, and how the battle to prevent it is progressing. Even shows like "Futurama" (the episode where Bender adopted 20 kids so he could get 100 "Wingwangs" a month per child), bring light (and with a little comedy) to this very real and serious topic.
If you haven't seen that episode, or don't watch that show, please take a look.
However, the reality is, some foster parents are/if not any better than Bender, and that's something unto itself...
It's so surprising how minimal the requirements for being a foster parent are. There should be more guidelines, such as a background knowledge or training in child development since mostly they will be fostering troubled children. It definitely makes me think more about the nurture side of the debate on childhood in crisis. If the requirements for these "mentors" are so apathetic, how can we expect our children to be anything more? There may be some families out there that are really into the whole foster care thing and are really great parents to their foster children, but it seems that more often than not the situation is that they are just in it for the money, like in Zits case. I guess anyone can decide to be a parent, which is kind of scary if you think about some people being parents, so it makes a little bit of sense that foster parents can be anyone as well. The government can't tell people not to have children, but to deliberately place a child into the care of someone who doesn't really care is pretty bad on the role of government as a protector.
I was also wondering why none of the authorities questioned any of the foster families as to Zits' care. It seems that he did not have a single positive experience with any of the 20 foster families he had. According to the current foster care requirements, I could have a foster child, and that is scary. I am by no means ready to take responsibility for another life, nor do I have the means. There definitely need to be more guidelines for foster parents, and more research needs to be done before placing a child with a family. though I do know some wonderful people who are foster parents, I have also heard some horrible stores. I just find it appalling that people do something that seems so outwardly good, but they really have such sinister motives.
I think this also brings up a bigger issue in the context of this class. We have focused so much on naughty children, or children who do naughty things. This might be an overly-romantic view of the child, but at what point is it the parent's responsibilty to nurture and raise their child to become a good kid? Zits is naughty, but with the lack of parenting and role models he has always had, how can you blame him? I think it has to be at least partly the parents fault if their child is naughty-- thei just kids and might not know any better. But shouldn't it be the parents' job to teach them?
You have an interesting point about the fact that no adults (the social worker, his foster parents, even Officer Dave) seem to really tackle the issue of why Zits misbehaves, and I think this speaks to the way in which adult society tends to view children, or what they think children should be. The social worker believes that Zits acts out because he hasn’t learned to be a “fully realized human being” (6). This turns Zits’s delinquency into an incredibly simple matter: He is not a complete, true person, so of course he acts in ways that are disruptive to society. It makes Zits’s misbehavior into an expected thing, which is dangerous, as I think it leads to its easy disregard, to the automatic passing of Zits from foster home to foster home without a real attempt to fix his so-called status as an incomplete person. I think the fact that Zits is basically an orphan also contributes to the ‘expectedness’ of his misbehaviors, as he doesn’t fit into the traditional mold of the child as a sheltered, protected being. It seems that it is easy, then, for the adults in Flight to chalk Zits’s bad behavior up to his status as an orphan / partially realized human being, and not think any deeper about it.
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/background.cfm
Mark, here is another link that describes more broadly some foster care requirements. It's a national website. This site also includes some of the crimes that could disqualify you from being a foster parents. Apparently, some crimes are not considered severe enough to permanently disqualify someone from being a foster parent. In some states people convicted of physical assault, battery or drug-related charges are allowed to be foster parents as long as they were convicted more than 5 years ago. Hope this helps.
This is very depressing that there are not stricter rules to follow in order to be a foster parent. Friends of my family are actually foster parents and it is a shame some of the children that come to them are like. Some of the children are afraid that they are going to start screaming at them, and others are acting out because they simply need some attention. I believe the reason the laws are so loose is that there are so many kids out there in need of homes, and there simply is not enough homes to place them safely.
I don't believe the book dives into the issues of the foster care because it was not what the book was about. Yes Zits was mistreated which added to his "naughtiness", but it was not the subject of the book. Any type of family setting, or lack there of, will affect children. We can see this today with children being raised by one parent or a family member. They act out as well but no one believes that it is the family's fault, the child has had a rough life which is the cause of their "naughtiness". IT is an unfortunately common occurance in our country today. We cannot say that family's must exhibit certain qualities to take care of their children, so we cannot change how their home environment will inevitably affect them. Yes there should be stricter guidelines for foster families to meet, but with the lack of foster homes now, I think that it is a reason for the lack of requirements (which is terrible in itself).
Growing up, I had a close friend who was in the care of the state and lived in a few different foster homes. From my experience, it is unfortunately true that many people volunteer to be foster families just for the money, or out of an initially benevolent impulse that soon gets squashed out of them by the depressing reality. Furthermore, children in foster care or with emotional problems are treated as "bad seeds" or like they are already "too messed up" to be normal. While it is not touched on in the book, this also extends to children who are in special education, whether for reasons of mental proficiency or emotional health. I have consistently heard these kids referred to as "problem children" or "difficult cases" or any number of things that reduce their humanity and seem to force them into adopting the persona that people attribute to them. However, when you talk to the children themselves you find (as in the case of Zits) that they are just regular people who have suffered a lot of pain and/or hardship, and need support and love, not demonization. Unfortunately, the system for dealing with these kids is extremely overtaxed, and so even people with the best intentions often find it impossible to truly help.
This post addresses a very serious problem that exists in our country. Little attention and concern is given to the very people who need it the most: children. This post reminded me of a situation I encountered when I first began working at a child development center with 3-5 year olds. One boy in particular has an extreme issue with having to be first, everywhere and everytime. When teachers are talking about another child, he chimes in and has to put his two cents in about his own life. I learned that the teachers termed his behavior as the 'Russian Orphanage Syndrome'. They explained to me that he was so deprived when in an orphanage in Russia, that upon entering an environment where things are not denied to him, it just became so overwhelming. This shows that other countries also battle with the ability of providing efficient child care to children in need in that it seems to be at the bottom of the list of priorities. This suggests that child care in the United States and beyond needs to be radically overhauled becuase we can't ignore the fact that poor care affects our children in negative ways in many aspects of their life.
I was very surprised when I read the requirements for a person to be a foster parent. I couldn't believe those were the only requirements. I also wondered in the book why none of the foster homes were questioned when Zits ran away. We can't assume all foster homes are bad places for foster children to be, but this seems like an issue that needs a lot more attention given to it in our country.
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