Adoption in schools?

Question

I think that adoption should be touched on in schools as alot of people just dont understand what it is and I know from personal experience that alot of my school friends used to question me about alot of things to do with my adopiton. what do u think?

Answer 1

Yeah good idea also those future social service monkeys sitting in class will understand what they are doing when they do leave school and start work.......

Answer 2

i was the same , i was placed in a foster home when i was 6 months old and they adopted me when i was 5 years old and the questions i had at school were really annoying , i used to get questioned all the time and i even had people say that they were "not my real family " and saying something like that to a 5 year old who at the time knows no different was bad, and it even continued as i got older kids used to ask " did your mum and dad buy you" so it should be touched upon in school  because if children understand  what it means to be adopted it would stop alot of social problems at school.

Answer 3

I don't remember ever discussing this with school friends.  It wasn't a secret but it wasn't something I brought up with regularity either.  I think schools need to stay focused on the academic subjects right now.  It's amazing how many people graduate from our schools with below basic skills.  

I do agree that some teachers need some training though.  I remember a health class where the assignment was to draw a big family tree, tracing any health conditions that could possibly be hereditary so that we could see what we might be at risk for.  I approached the teacher after class and told her I didn't have access to that information and asked for an alternative assignment.  She told me to do it on my adoptive family.  I felt that would be a waste of time since the point of the assignment was to determine what we might have inherited medically.  She refused to let me to some sort of alternate assignment so I turned in a rather short family tree---just me and a bunch of blank boxes..  My parents ended up having to go to the principal to get this teacher a little sensitivity training.  I didn't ask to be given a pass on the assignment, I just wanted to do something that would be meaningful.

Answer 4

No way.  I disagree with this whole concept

Answer 5

Hmm lets see here. So we teach about adoption in schools and who gains from it exactly? The adoptee by being segregated from his or her peers? The other students by being given fodder to bully an adoptee or reason to see that child as different? The young girls who may someday find themselves coping with an unplanned pregnancy (hey I learned all about how GREAT adoption is in the fourth grade, guess I will give my child to some nice forever family)?

Do we teach the negative side along with the positive? Do we show how an adoptee can develop severe attachment, esteem and abandonment issues, so everyone can wonder if that adopted kid in the fourth row is a mental wreck? Or maybe we only show the good side and leave any adopted child in the class thinking their own feelings are invalid if they have "issues" with their adoption?

Bah.. I really haven't the nerves to actually answer this tonight.

Answer 6

no heck no. as an adoptee i do not want them to point out my differences to a bunch of people that will never understand anyway. if anything it will make things worse because the information they will get is from the same people promoting adoption and half of that stuff is wrong because it's all one sided. it's from the adopters point of view and not the adoptee. please don't do that.

Answer 7

I think some teachers could use some understanding about adoption.

In 4th grade my daughter, who likes to talk about her adoption,  was absolutely stifled by a teacher who would turn her nose at the topic of adoption. This very traditional "older woman" did not know how to deal with it. Luckly my daughter has the self-esteem to get through it.

5th grade is so much better with a younger teacher who, at our first conference we discovered, also has adoption in her family too.

And yes, I think students/peers would also learn from adoption that there is more than one way to become part of a family.

Answer 8

My child's school discussed adoption as part of a lesson including foreign and UK adoptions

Answer 9

Teach something that affects less than 2% of the population? And who's doing the teaching--social workers and adoptive parents? Puke.

Why not go back to reading, writing and 'ritmatic?  We (the US) is getting our butts kicked by many other counties.

Besides, adoption will be affecting less people in the future.  It's becoming less popular-- thank goodness.

Answer 10

It sounds like a good idea, I would have liked to learn more about adoption back in high school. I don't think it would be a mandatory subject for everyone to take like English, History, Math...etc... Most likely it would be a section in a Family Education class, and mostly girls take those classes.

Answer 11

No, No, a thousand times NO.

Do we really need adoption agencies pushing their agenda onto their next target market...impressionable young teenage girls?  Or middle school girls?

That's about as nauseous as the tobacco companies doing the exact same thing.

Answer 12

THAT WOULD BE A GREAT IDEA