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Right vs. Left
I was disappointed to
read a letter to the editor written by a TCU parent, Jeff
Isler, in the Spring 2006 TCU Magazine. Mr. Isler has the
opinion that the magazine has a very liberal bias and he is
considering withdrawing overall support from the University.
As a 1976 graduate, I,
on the other hand, have found the articles to be fresh, up
to date and well balanced. I did not consider the articles
in the past issues to have an “obvious liberal bias,” as Mr.
Isler states, in any respect. I have been very pleased with
the magazine’s coverage of both political and collegiate
issues and feel that the University is growing with the
times.
I sincerely respect Mr.
Isler’s opinion but would caution him that “liberal” and
“conservative” are words that invoke strong and very
differing meanings to different people. I hope that Mr.
Isler will look more toward his child’s experience on campus
and in the classroom rather than to a few articles in a
magazine before forming such a strong opinion of TCU.
Please keep up the good
work, TCU, both in the magazine and on campus in the
classrooms!
-- Carol Kroesche ’76
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Biased? In the Spring
2006 issue, Mr. Isler complains about the obvious “liberal”
bias of The TCU Magazine and expresses a desire that it does
not extend to the faculty. As a nominally Christian
institution, I would hope that TCU does have an obvious
liberal bias and forcefully teaches its students to look at
the many crimes that the U.S. committed abroad in a
so-called fight for freedom.
-- David C. Johnson, ’05 PhD
Finding the Real Child
Editor’s note:
Correspondence regarding last issue’s cover story has poured
in to our office and ICD, many wanting help. Here is a
sample. Go to www.magazine.tcu.edu to read them in entirety.
I applaud Karyn Purvis,
director of TCU's Institute of Child Development for her
pioneer work helping broken children from foreign orphanages
find healing. Her approach of building a relationship of
trust and acceptance with the child, and teaching the
parents how to do the same, is a golden miracle that seems
to be the beginning of all growth and change.
As a graduate in Child
Development from TCU, I feel a sense of pride in the fine
work Ms.Purvis is doing. I am currently mentoring a
14-year-old boy who was adopted from Russia several years
ago. My young student and I have a wonderful relationship
based on trust and acceptance. Academic and emotional
improvements are being made and his parents are so grateful.
Thank you for the
inspiring article. I am sure many others found it as
encouraging as I.
-- Paulette Grant Jackson '73
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Thank you so very much
for the article about RAD children/adopted children with
behavioral problems. Please continue to publish ICD's work.
We are a family with a
RAD child and wish we could be in your local area to avail
ourselves of some of the work going on there. (We live in
Evergreen, Colorado.) After reading your first article on
the subject in 1999, we even used some of the ideas we read
about. Unless you have lived with such a child, it is very
difficult to understand the extreme
exhaustion/turmoil/difficulty/intensity of such a life.
Fortunately, our young one has been healed of much of her
problems. She also smiles and giggles now. Thank you very
much.
-- Janet Schroeder ’80 (BSN)
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I just read the cover
story about Kristen. What a miracle the TCU Institute for
Child Development performed for this family. Thanks for
bringing this to your readers!
-- Beth Eley Zimmerman ‘89
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My daughter, adopted
from China three years ago, has been diagnosed with RAD and
PTSD. We have a parent support group in Boise, which began
as an adoption ministry but turned into a RAD support group.
I learned about your research from another site, and we need
your help! Some of the children represented are pretty
extreme, and may not stay in their homes.
We were never prepared
for parenting a child with attachment disorder or Post
Traumatic Stress disorder. In fact, we were told that there
is no Reactive Attachment Disorder coming out of China.
We were also told by
our agency and other social workers that if you got a child
under 2 years old RAD was very rare. Since we did not know
about her troubles, we unknowingly put her into situations
that triggered her fear-based reactions. Then we disciplined
her for the defiant behaviors she was using to make herself
feel safe.
How do parents find the
truth of what is going on with their child if agencies and
other parents don’t educate them? I still hear within the
Chinese adoption community that RAD is prevalent in Eastern
Europe, but not in China. I am telling you that it is in
China, and as these kids age there will be more families
dealing with the repercussions of the neglect, overcrowding,
and warehousing of babies. Our precious daughter was
horribly wounded in China, and we are being called to work
with the Lord to help her heal. Parenting an adopted child
is not the same as parenting a child who came by birth.
-- MeDenne Jones
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I have just finished
reading the article in your magazine entitled “Finding the
Real Child.” Although sensory integration is not my area of
expertise, adoption and adopted children ARE. I was,
frankly, appalled by some of the erroneous and misleading
information contained in the article, and the stigmatizing
descriptions and language used to refer to adopted
youngsters, their parents, and the way that families are
built or expanded through adoption.
I have been working in
the international adoption arena for almost three decades.
My name is one that is well known throughout the broader
adoption community because of the type of work that I do.
There are few adoption professionals who could claim to see
as many adopted youngsters and follow their psychological
development over time that I do. I travel twice a month and
often see as many as 80 to 100 youngsters over a long
weekend (in age appropriate groups), and I have regular and
consistent contact with both adoptive family support groups
and adoption agencies all across North America. If anyone
could challenge this author's claims, I certainly could.
It is highly disturbing
to see adoption characterized so falsely and adopted
youngsters pathologized to this extent. I find it appalling
that your magazine would not fact-check its articles. Please
use credible authors. Please check statistical claims made
about adopted youngsters with authentic adoption
professionals. Dana Johnson, named in the article, for
example, would be highly qualified to read such a article
for content and tell you whether or not the information is
accurate. I know, without even asking him, that he would be
horrified by the way that adopted youngsters are blatantly
pathologized by this article and that he would not validate
the many false claims this particular author has made.
-- Jane A. Brown, MSW, MFT
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My husband and I have
two adopted children from our state. We were lied to about
their lives pre- adoption and just didn't know how awful it
was. But I guess we “saved” them from more abuse? We adopted
them in '94 and have lived a Hell on Earth ever since.
The eldest is out of
the home (his choice) and the youngest (15-years-old) is now
thriving in a treatment center. He will go to a Therapeutic
Foster Family when he graduates from his treatment plan.
Trust me, we tried
everything — even an Intensive attachment center. All
adopted kids cannot be saved — especially when pre-adoptive
parents are lied to. We do know that our eldest has been
re-adopted but no one called for any background information.
-- Rory and Theresa Thomas
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This issue's cover
comprises one of the finest examples of “progressive
disclosure” in my experience. Furthermore, you address
therein one of the most compelling topics of our time, one
that has progressively — but all too gradually — emerged
from the tragic depths of neglect that our society displayed
far too deeply into the 20th century.
My compliments to the
staff on this item, as well as on the evident upward trend
of your publication's quality of content.
-- Gordon Dobbins, Jr. ’61 (MA ’63)
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Another adoptive parent
passed on the wonderful article, “Finding the Real Child,”
published in your magazine. What very encouraging news! Just
one teeny-tiny criticism, however. The article stated: “Less
than five years earlier, Stacie and husband Carl had adopted
two Russian babies, 8-month-old Kristen and 23-month-old
Caleb, after giving up on having children of their own.”
(Italics added for emphasis.)
Parents who give up the
dream of having a biological child do not give up the dream
of having a child “of their own” when they turn to adoption.
I have a biological child and an adopted one — I consider
both equally “my own.” Thanks again for a wonderful article.
-- Patricia Roberts Gilford
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Just wondering about
those of us with “old” brains who were neglected in
infancy. I am 57 years old, was given up for adoption at
birth, but placed in a foster home (in Arkansas, they were
called “state” homes) until 8 months of age, at which time I
was adopted. When my adoptive parents got me, I was unable
to sit up by myself.
I’ve been in deep
therapy for the past two years trying to work through
things, but am beginning to realize I’ll probably always
have “stuff.”
God bless your
continued work, I’m so excited for the children you’re
reaching and hope one day you’ll be able to extend your
services to other adopted (and otherwise abandoned)
children. Abandonment is pandemic in America and across
this world. May your pattern become a template to reach
many, many people.
-- Carolyn Nuthman
Horned Frog Pattern
In one of the more
recent magazines, there was a pattern for a Horned Frog
pillow on the kid’s page. I have misplaced that and was
wondering if I could get a copy of that pattern. I bought
the materials to make it, and then lost the pattern. I
would appreciate your help.
-- Ashley Aebersold
Editor’s note: We are
working on getting all the craft ideas presented in our
Super Frog Fun Page up on the Web. Until then, contact us
for any ideas from past issues.
Bweh-nos dee-ahs
I was casually perusing
a copy of my wife's TCU Magazine (Spring 2006, p. 24) when I
came upon an article on conversational Spanish that showed
some common Spanish expressions with the accompanying
phonetic spellings to aid in their proper pronunciation.
I was somewhat aghast
that long vowel phonetics were used that really make for
truly gringofied pronunciation. Also the “v” sound in
“favor” is more correct, and even then it's soft and
fleeting.
So herewith I am
presenting my slightly tweaked version on how to pronounce
your Spanish translations:
* Buenos dias (BWEH-nos
DEE-ahs)
* Entre, por favor (EN-treh por fah-VOR)
* Como se llama? (CO-mo seh YAH-mah)
* Feliz cumpleaños (feh-LEES coom-pleh-AHN-yos)
* Que tenga un buen dia. (keh-TEN-gah oon buehn DEE-ah)
* Buena suerte. (BUEH-nah SWEHR-teh)
* El menú, por favor. (el meh-NOO por fah-VOR)
* Me gusta. (meh GOO-stah)
* La cuenta, por favor. (lah KWEHN-tah por fah-VOR)
* Lo siento. loh see-EN-toh)
-- Henry Taylor
Protecting children
Thank you for the
well-written article publicizing the investigative services
we at Cat's-Eye provide Child Protective Services. We hope
our efforts will continue to permit us to locate an ever
increasing number of families in the future, offering
children a safer and and more secure environment in which to
grow. The stability of our entire society requires it.
-- Geoffrey Tait
Ames Observatory
As fate would have it,
I happened across the TCU site, and on a lark did a search
on the old observatory my dad donated back in the 1950's. I
was amazed to find the story updating what happened to it.
As TCU class of 1962, I
am the son referred to in the article, and I remember the
whole event surrounding the donation, but lost track of it
over the years.
I have so many great
memories of TCU. It may have been ancient times, but we did
some pretty crazy things then, and amazed we all lived to go
out into the world and make our marks or stumble.
-- Richard Ames ’62
Comment at
tcumagazine@tcu.edu
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