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GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1968 7
Sister John Frances
We re All Proud Of The Village Of St. Joseph’
combination, and an activities
building which contains two
classrooms, an arts and craft area,
~1i workroom for case-workers, a
room for medical examinations,
and a half basketball court with a
small stage at one end. Along
with this, we have received as
gifts, two horses, two ponies,
three dogs and two kittens.
We feel that these physical
%
surroundings are ideal for
working with the children. The
cottages are warm in appearance.
m
Our children are attending four
schools in the area, namely, Most
m.
Blessed Sacrament, St.
Anthony’s, Cliftondale, and St.
Joseph’s High School. If the
wrm-
Sisters of St. Joseph are part of the “family” in the cottages at the
Village.
‘Yes:. .this is Georgia,” snow and all.
? Prior to 1876, any Catholic
‘physical’ orphan in the state of
Georgia was cared for by the
Sisters of St. Joseph in Savannah,
Georgia. You will note that I use
the term ‘physical orphan.’ This
physical orphan was a child who
had no living parents.
Due to crowded living
conditions in Savannah, the boys
were brought up to Washington,
Georgia in 1876, and the new
institution was known as St.
Joseph’s Male Orphanage. In the
thirties, a new building was
erected in Washington, Georgia
and the name of the institution
was again changed, this time to
St. Joseph’s Boys’ Home. Even as
early as this time, boys who were
not actually ‘physical’ orphans,
were being referred and accepted
for placement. Very good
custodial care was given to themr
With the development of the
physical sciences and the
behavioral sciences, emphasis in
child care had to be focused less
and less on physical orphans and
more and more on ‘psychological
orphans.’ Why? The number of
‘physical’ orphans or parentless
children was diminishing, thanks
to advances in the field of
medicine. However, at the same
time the number of
‘psychological orphans’ or
children who could not or should
not live in their own homes for a
time was increasing. There are
multiple reasons that children
with parents cannot live in their
own homes. Frequently, parents
consciously or even
unconsciously reject their
children because these parents are
too involved in their own
problems to bother with the
children; or, for some reason or
other the parents feel that the
presence of this child causes
upset in the home. Other parents
‘view’ a child like a football
tossing him from one to the
other, or worse still, using the
child to get revenge on his
partner. In the meantime, these
children get all tied up in a knot
(we call these intra-psychic
conflicts). They become very
unsure of themselves and begin to
ask, “Am I completely bad? Is it
my fault that mother and dad
fight so much? Why can’t I
behave as nicely as Johnny? Why
do I do everything wrong?
Nobody likes me.” These doubts
about themselves soon begin to
creep into their behavior and we
find these children withdrawing
into a shell away from everyone;
or, going to the opposite extreme
of doing anything to get someone
to notice them - even if it is to be
punished.
We have a youngster who was
expelled or asked to leave two
schools for just exactly the
last-mentioned reason. He did
anything - even to endangering
his life - to get the teacher’s
attention. This child is from a
broken family with a mother who
must work. Without proper home
supervision and schooling, this
boy would soon be in detention
or a Y.D.C. center. This child is a
bright boy who if he can be
helped now, can break this
pattern of behavior and can
contribute to society rather than
always feeling a need to be
noticed, and doing anything to
fulfill it.
Before I give you any more on
the types of children with whom
we work, I would like to describe
the Village physical plant to you.
Those of you who have not seen
it please do come out soon. We
have a tract of 45 acres of
beautiful pine trees on a sloping
hillside. The buildings are high on
the hillside. We have four
cottages, a chapel, a
convent-administration
children are unable to function in
a normal classroom setting, we
have two special classrooms here
on the grounds and thirteen
children work here at their own
pace. One of our Sisters will
finish her master’s work at
Peabody this summer. She has
been teaching these children so
she is familiar with the new
approaches in the field. As soon
as a child is ready to go out to
school, he is sent, for this is one
of the first indications we have
that behavior is improving. Two
very wonderful ladies from St.
Jude’s Parish, Mrs. Mather and
Mrs. Logan, contribute their time
every Wednesday to teaching out
children here at the Village arts
and crafts. At the present time,
they are working on a papier
mache donkey to add to the
outdoor Christmas crib which
they began last year with the
children.
Let me now turn back to the
kinds of children with whom we
work. One little girl is very
withdrawn. She prefers to play
alone, and is just now at a stage
where she will try to meet with
children her own age. Her mother
was quite ill during pregnancy
and expected this child to be
abnormal in some way. As a
result, the parents were almost
afraid of her and would have
little to do with her, permitting
her to spend hours by herself or
with a pet. This youngster was
thought to be mentally retarded,
but after testing it was found that
if she could be in a special
learning situation, away from her
family for a time, she would
improve, and she has.
Academically she’s doing very
well but her motor control is still
poor. She is now able to turn a
somersault, to walk a balancing
beam, and to tie her own
shoelaces. Not only is she playing
with the other children in her
cottage, but she is learning to
hold ‘her own’ very well.
However, this required a good
deal of time and individual work.
We could go on and on, giving
you individual cases of children
with whom we are working. We
have the children that we call
Toners’ who, when they come
will play by themselves, and are
too fearful to reach out and look
for playmates. We have children
who are afraid to ride a bicycle
because they don’t want anybody
to see them fall or make a
mistake. One little loner has now
reached the stage that she wants
to be a blonde, because ‘blondes
have more fun.’ This of course, is
a real improvement.
Another type of child whom
we have is the youngster who is
so starved for affection that he
must constantly pick up things
Christmas comes but once a year but everybody at the Village
of St. Joseph enjoys the great feast.
that are not his, to feel that person we want “something” to
something belongs to him. All of belong to us. These children will
us want “some one” to belong to again pick up anything without
us, but when we don’t find this rea lizing that this is not the way
one wins love.
ST. JOSEPH’S
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Home 451-3443
A MERRY CHRISTMAS
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BOB BEATY- Mgr. 233-1957