Posted by Howard Richman on April 30 2008 at 08:18:45:
In Reply to: Sect children to be "homeschooled" in orphanages posted by Howard Richman on April 26 2008 at 22:42:49:
The kidnapped children, now in orphanages, are homesick but forging new bonds. Here is a selection from an article by Erin Quinn in today´s Waco (TX) Tribune-Herald:
Children residing at Waco’s Methodist Children’s Home after their removal from a rural West Texas polygamist compound are anxious and homesick but doing the things many children do, home president Bobby Gilliam said Tuesday....HowardTo forge relationships between the staff and the children, one Methodist Children’s Home staffer has been placed with every five or six children, Gilliam said — an increase beyond what’s customary.
“The environment has gotten more calm every day,” he said....
Next step for the staff: Developing educational plans for the children who have been presumably home-schooled, he said. The youngest children will be read to....
At the same time, staff members are respecting rituals the children are known to practice.
The girls, for example, spend hours in small groups each morning and evening brushing and fastening their long hair. The children still wear the prairie-style dresses and attire they’ve always worn. And they’re housed separately from the 180 other youths living at the Methodist Children’s Home.
Gilliam said the staff is letting the children from West Texas stick to their routines as much as possible. Some of the older children are being permitted to take on leadership roles in caring for the younger ones.
“They’re very active, incredibly cute and virtually, psychologically, they’re all siblings,” he said.