And finally …: Keeping children's care in perspective

When looking back through history, it is often the care of the needy and disadvantaged that is taken as the measure of our society's past decency and worth. How our ancestors dealt with the distribution of wealth, what attention they gave to issues of justice and equality, and how much concern they showed for those suffering poverty or distress are questions used to judge the value of social developments. People who work with children often keep ideas and images of children's past welfare in mind as a guide for their work today. In the process of considering the care of children historically, and particularly that of orphaned or unwanted children, one is often struck either by the lack of change in the ways by which people care for children; or by the undue praise awarded to ‘progressive’ or ‘scientific’ understandings of children's needs. The view taken does, of course, depend largely upon which era is chosen for comparison with the present.