While the child welfare system imploded, something else happened. Far from the barracks image of the old-style orphanages, the Maryville townhouse would be the envy of any college kid crammed into a dorm room. On the cork bulletin board, the therapy schedule shares space with the gym schedule. It's the only option for kids who can't handle the intimacy and demands and inconsistency of a foster home. Critics of institutional care argue that it can harm children by depriving them of a family structure.
Most families are better than most institutions.
That does not mean it's not possible to have humane institutions, but we believe in having a few adults and a few children relating to each other. I don't want to say there's never been a good orphanage, but it has to be at the very, very end of the continuum. Many of the kids at Maryville would agree. But many of those kids also acknowledge, perhaps reluctantly, that they can't cut it in a family right now. It'd be much different if I had a regular family, but I understand that's not going to happen.