I spent several hours in the desert yesterday, looking at ancient Anasazi petroglyphs. Cliff faces and sheets of rock, giant blackboards filled with creation myths, tales of the human experience, journeys travelled and to be taken. Very few people understand the stories. Some that do are hesitant to share the tales, their history, with outsiders. Perhaps [...]
Archive for August, 2011
Petroglyphs and rays of sun
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged anasazi, petroglyphs, ray of sun on August 17, 2011 | 5 Comments »
Race and Child Welfare
Posted in Equity, tagged ACS, CWOP, disproportionality, Dorothy Roberts, equity, Foster care, privilege, racism on August 14, 2011 | 4 Comments »
If an anthropologist from the future were to study the United States in 2011, she’d likely conclude that our child welfare system was designed to remove children from families of color. The numbers are stark. In New York, 82% of kids in foster care are children of color. Studies show that black families are 10 [...]
Why Do We Do It? (One of Fosterhood’s answers)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged village, why we do it on August 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
You remember Fosterhood, our favorite fostering blog. People ask her why she fosters, and doesn’t she get attached to the child? “Yes. You’re supposed to. I think that’s why they’re looking for human beings to foster and not robots”. The real question they’re asking though is “Isn’t it so incredibly painful when the children are [...]
Why Do We Do It? (One of Andrew’s non-answers)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged village, why we do it on August 14, 2011 | 2 Comments »
So why do we do it? What good is it? Does it teach you anything? Like determination? Invention? Improvisation? Foresight? Hindsight? Love? Art? Music? Religion? – Terry and Renny Russell, On the Loose Judging by the reactions we get when we mention our impending FosterWee, it’s surprising for white urban professionals to choose fostering over [...]
Choosing an Agency
Posted in Agency, tagged ACS, agency, privilege on August 14, 2011 | 4 Comments »
In New York State, foster care is managed by the Administration for Children’s Services. There are about 25,000 children in foster care statewide. (Good news — that figure is about half of what it was 15 years ago.) ACS doesn’t actually certify foster parents or place children in homes; they partner with private, non-profit [...]
Choosing a School
Posted in Education, tagged Deborah Meier, Education, help wanted, privilege on August 12, 2011 | 8 Comments »
One of the reasons we want to build the FosterWee blog is to create a community that can share expertise with us. (Carrie I and combine to possess expertise in the following: the 1982 St. Louis Cardinals, vampire novels and baking cookies.) We know we’ll need help figuring out NYC public schools. Our future foster [...]
Certified
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Bloom County, certification, Foster care on August 11, 2011 | 2 Comments »
It’s on. As of yesterday, our home is an open, certified New York State foster home. In theory, a fosterwee could arrive any time. Carrie expected us to be certified this quickly. After all, we’ve completed the MAPP course, CPR certification, personal interviews, physicals and psychiatric evaluations and home studies. As a literalist, though, I [...]
What We Can Do
Posted in Education, tagged Education, Foster care, Jonathan Kozol, Matt Damon, Naive Pronouncements, save our schools, skill set on August 5, 2011 | 1 Comment »
I’ll echo Carrie Ann’s shout out to the Save Our Schools activism. It was inspiring to listen to old heroes (Debbie Meier, Jonathan Kozol) and voices who were new to me (John Kuhn, Matt Damon, Jose Vilson). It was energizing to be around folks who are passionate about education and equity. I got a kick [...]
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