New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 5, 1927, Page 19

P Little Roberta Jane Pratt, whose recent charges of cruelty on the part of her foster mother have stirred widespread interest in the very com- plicated problem of or- phans and their adoption T isn’t every person of good l breeding, kindly intentions and adequate financial means who is fit to adopt a child or able properly to “bring one up.” People who adopt children fre- quently do so with little knowl- edge of the responsibilities of foster-parents, and go into the adventure cherishing all sorts of crazy notions about youngsters, their ways and their needs. All too many of them do it thinking only of their own hopes and desires, not at all of the helpless little things to whom they are about to play the part of destiny. On the other hand, it isn’t every child who is fit to be adopted by persons of good breeding, kindly intention and ade- quate financial means—not if the adop- ters in question value their future peace of mind, and do not want to have their old age embittered by the deviltry of angel-faced kids turned bounders or scoundrels on reaching a man’s estate. In the opinion of two of the ablest social workers in New York, there is no important phase of contemporary life more misunderstood than that of the adoption of children. The workers are Miss Sophie Van S. Theis, secretary of the Child Placing Department of the State Charities Aid of New York, and Miss Helen Baxter, as- sistant superintendent of the New York Children’s Aid Society. ers know when a child is what is called “adoptable” they say, and nowhere in this wide world will you find a woman who will admit she is unfit to have the mothering of a childs Choosing a child to adopt is as serious and important a business as choosing a future wife or husband, yet most women pick those they will adopt because their hair is curly, or their eyes are blue, or for some equally weighty reason. Then, when some hereditary strain comes to the surface—some strain that would have been sensed at the start, had proper care been exercised, the good la- dies are shocked and pained. The whole question of adoption and its pitfalls was brought to the attention of the public recently by the case of little Roberta Jane Pratt. This little girl caused a nine-day sensation by charging that her foster-mother, Mrs. Everett S. Pratt of Des Moines, Iowa, burned her with a hot iron for minor acts of disobedience: while the family was stopping at an exclusive New York hotel. @ course, the Children’s Society took action, but Mrs. Pratt was released and vindicated when the case went to trial, and later expressed herself as be. wildered by the girl’s lying. Few, except professional social work- . “We spent thousands of dollars on her, and thought she was grateful,” she declared. Then she revealed that the child was the daughter of a woman now in an institution for the feeble-minded and an old man who since has died. While the case was in the courts, thousands of letters poured into the Chil- dren’s Society, offering to adopt Roberta, and in not one of the letters was there the slightest hint of an intelligent knowl- edge of just what it means to adopt a human being and assume responsibility for that being before the law and before the world. “Let us dismiss as unfit to adopt any child the selfish woman who wants to take one merely for her own comfort, pleasure or amusement,” says Miss Sophie Theis. “Such a woman is irresponsible, heart- less. A child is not a pet cat ¢r a lap dog, o have his or her destiny rear- ranged so that some fat, lazy woman may have company; or some sour-faced, sour-hearted old maid may have some- body around to domineer over. Whols e A mat Experts in the Care of Orphans Explain and Also Tell Just How -Would-Be Foster Parents Should Go About the Selection of a Little Son or Daughter A little homeless waif undergoing the rigid physical examination which is re- quired of all children when they come under the care of the Children’s Aid Society of New York Below, a psychological expert in the New York State charities service giving a child one of the mental tests which are believed to be of great value in planning a satisfactory future for homeless children, either in some institution or in a private family " "““’.0{ A good example of the healihy, intelligent chil- dren for whom state and private charitable organi- zations are continually providing good homes “Then she will tell herself that, barring the pains of . “Then let us take the woman of soft rild-bearing she will have all those heart and softer brain, who wants to t bles and more. adopt a child to reap the harvest of his adopted child is always more gratitude in old age. If an adopted child is any good, he will repay the kind- ness of foster-parents with reasonable gratitude later on. But bear in mind that a child does not ask to be adopted. any more than a child asks to be born. And people who demand ecstatic grati- tude merely because they ‘raise’ a child are not to be considered. ‘“Another thing. No woman should take a child into her home if her hus- band does not want one. Once in a while, in story books, the husband is won Pete, trouble than one's own. When your own some bit of mischie yourself by That is natural. all son is guilty of you can comfort thinking that his Uncle 1 respected butter-and-egg merchant, was just as ‘trying’ when he was a little boy. will all work out for the best. the child of strangers flashes some bit of the old Adam, you don’t know where it came from, Heredity, you see. It But when sometimes. You don’t know whether it’s just boy, or rascal in the embryo. over by the innocent babbling of the “And, finally, couples who wouid adopted one. In real life, too often, he adopt children should lay aside the idea makes the adopted child feel as welcome entirely unless they are prepared to alter as a stray cat. “The wise woman, about to adopt a child, will talk with some woman who has babies of her own. She will get that woman’s story complete. All the annoyance and discomfort and heartache of bringing up a child, as well as the joy that only a child can bring. rifices eration their scheme of living completely for the good of the little one they plan to take into their homes. “With our ow we make all sorts of That is natural. It is the ute of the passing to the rising gen- Sven animals have the feeling. But some women have the idea that they (Courtesy Children's A1d Society) ! Two unkempt little charges of the Children’'s Aid Society of New York before they have been washed and dressed up for the inspection of persons wanting to adopt children are not called upon to make the same sacrifices for a child taken out of an institution.” So far, Miss Theis has been talking about normal, hapqy children of good heredity and good disposition. Even an angel-faced kid, with a corresponding disposition, can be spoiled by some of the classes of women she has been describing. But, important as it is for the prospective foster-parents of a child to be sure they approach their responsibil- ity in the right spirit, it is equally important to be sure that the child under consideration is fit to be adopted. Not that any child any- where in this wide world is unworthy of love and help; but the foster-mother who must rear a child not of her own blood will have a much better chance of making a good job of it if she gets the right kind of youngster to start with. “Some women are so weak-minded that they don’t even make intelligent in- quiries about the physical health of tha babies they mean to assume charge of,” says Miss Theis. ‘“As to the antecedents of the children, they never give the matter a thought. They don’t ask whether a baby has rela- tives living who may some day become prosperous and reclaim him from strang- ers, or try to. Frequently they make no inquiry as to race or religion. Almost never do they ask the social worker what the child’s mind promises to be. “If a rich, childless couple want to adopt a baby, they may pick a sturdy, handsome little sinner out of a home, to find later, when they send him to Prince- ton or Yale, that they have a high-class moron on their hands. “Not every baby is fitted to every home. Many a rosy-cheeked kid who would be a total ‘bust’ as the foster-child of a wealthy, shilanthropic bachelor, would be a howling success in the neat little home of some self-respecting, hard- working widow in the country.” Miss Baxter, assistant superintendent of the Children’s Aid Society of New York, says that her society never ap- proves the adoption of a child with liv- ing parenuts unless the parents are ob- viously and odiously impossible. So far, science has found no substi- tute for real mother love, and if the father or mother is even remotely ade- quate the child is left with them. “How does the adopted child usually turn out?” i Miss Theis, who speaks so plainly on the perils of adoption, says that children “placed” by her society make good about as often as the “own” children of people in corresponding walks of life. “Seventy- eight per cent of the children we have placed have turned out well,” she stated. “Another eleven per cent we call harmless. That is, they have not set the world afire, but they are not notoriously unsatisfactory. The other eleven per cent turned out badly. That is, some of them turned really bad before they reached twenty-one, while others simply failed to come anywhere near the roseate expectations of their foster-parents. But that's not a bad average, even among children whose parents are alive.” Miss Theis says that illegitimate chil- dren are not generally bad “risks” when one is picking an orphan to adopt, little as a sensitive woman may enjoy the thought. Children of parents who have been too poor, callous, inadequate or downright shiftless to care for them are more likely to turn out badly. The bright side of this adoption busi- ness is pretty familiar to the public, because of the many cases in which seemingly hapless orphans have brought happiness into the lives of prominent Americans and secured for themselves the best of chances. Helen Gould Shepard has two adopted children of whom she is inordinately fond. Vice-President Dawes took two children when his own son met with ac- cidental death. The Dawes children are the delight of the heart of the man with the inverted pipe, and he has told friends he would not keep house unless he had them. The social workers find that middle- class people are generally better foster- parents than the very rich. Which is natural. They are obliged to give the child they take into their home the per- sonal service and attention that is rele- J gated to maids and nurses in the homes of the ultra-wealthy. They come to feel a bond almost as close as that of kinship. ; Miss Theis would remind every one contemplating adoption that every child is a gamble, and a foster-child the big- gest gamble of all. She would insist on mental tests for children. And on a rigid examingtion of the character and means and ideals and ideas of prospee- tive foster-parents. And she would, if she could, compel those who intend to adopt to pick their children before they are seven years old. After that, chile dren get set in their ways and are hard to change. Copyright, 1927, by Johnson Features, Inc.