Children's Aid Society Analysis

During the mid nineteenth century, there was a major issue in which thousands of vagabond children roamed the streets of New York. They would sell pieces of rags, newspapers, and themselves trying to survive. In an attempt to remedy the problem, The Children’s Aid Society decided to send the “street children” on trains to rural America to be taken in by farmers, accepted into the family, and work on their farms. This situation is very interesting and can be analyzed sociological from many perspectives including from the intent of The Children’s Aid Society, the perspective of the children, and that of change in society over time. To begin looking at it from the objective of The Children’s Aid Society, the intent of the program was to remove the children from the environment that they were socialized in and people they were socialized around with the goal of re-socialization them. Socialization helps to establish norms and appropriate behavior of a person. In the culture of the city, it was accepted for children to be homeless, not attend school, and act in such a way that will lead to criminal behavior. However in the country, this behavior was not accepted as a norm, and children were required to work, attend school and church, and act respectfully toward adults. By removing the children from the toxic …show more content…
Many of the children were orphans, they already lacked a strong sense of identity, history, and role in the world. However when they were removed from the only place they ever knew and similar people and placed in a rural environment, the small semblance of identity they had was dismantled. As many of these orphans were illegitimate children, they were ostracized in these religious communities, because they were seen as dirty and the result of sin. The norm was only to have children within a marriage; it being taboo to have sex outside of