Amazing Stories from the Web
continued from No. 14ORPHANS THROUGH THE AGES
Pre-Reading: Discussion Questions
1. How big is your family?
2. What sorts of people often live alone?
When studying the topic Family at school or university, students traditionally learn the key vocabulary, and speak about the types of family that exist today. Surprisingly, one of the key words is often not included in the textbooks. If students know its meaning, they get it from fairy-tales. The word is ORPHAN, a person who has no parents. For example, Harry Potter is an orphan.
Sadly, in Russia today there are many so-called social orphans, children who do have one or both parents, but who live in orphanages because their parents abandoned them. Every human being is born into this world by a woman, ergo, every person has “parents”, at least at the start of their life. So maybe the word ORPHAN really belongs to the topic Family.
The first orphanages, called “orphanotrophia,” were founded in Europe in the 1st century A.D. for those children who had no living relatives left. Ancient Greeks took care of children whose parents perished in a war. In many countries, children and widows received financial support from various sources. During the Middle Ages the care of orphans was the responsibility of bishops, and orphans were placed in monasteries. When they reached the age of eighteen, they became apprentices, and received instruction in various crafts, so that they could support themselves in the future.
Leonardo Da Vinci, perhaps the most celebrated among the Renaissance figures, was illegitimate. He grew up with his mother, and then was sent to an artist’s workshop as an apprentice. Until recently, illegitimacy used to be seen as something to be ashamed of. Now it is acceptable by society, especially when parents are living together.
Historically, certain birth parents were often pressured or forced to give up their children to orphanages. For example, if a child was born out of wedlock, or if the family was too poor to support many children, or even if a c
hild was born with disabilities, or if a parent became disabled.
Gradually, many countries worked out laws and regulations which
ensured that an orphan was not left all alone in the world. Sometimes, when a famous writer or celebrity made it their business to attract the society’s attention to the current problems, a new law was introduced to help better the situation. For example, after the publication of Oliver 
Twist, a novel by Charles Dickens, there were official inquiries into the running of orphanages, and new regulations were adopted in Great Britain. Another famous example is Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, a novel which told the
truth about the position of an orphan in society, and about the way orphans were treated in orphanages.
Since the 1950s, the system of foster care and adoption has been developing in the USA. New laws which regulated punishment for those parents who abandoned their children appeared. Moreover, as it is no longer common for birth parents in Western countries to give up their children, and as far fewer people die of diseases or violence while their children are still young, the need to operate large orphanages has decreased.
In most developed countries today, the term orphanage has given way to softer language as “group home,” “children’s home,” or “rehabilitation center.” However, major charities are increasingly focusing their efforts on community-based care of orphans in order to keep them with extended family and communities. Orphanages are no longer common in the European community. In the United States, the largest remaining orphanage is the Bethesda Orphanage, founded in 1740 by George Whitefield.
Thanks to many celebrities, especially in Hollywood, it is now fashionable to adopt orphans from Third-world countries into American families. There are also many people in various countries who quietly adopt orphans from their own or other countries. Most often, they do it not as a tribute to fashion, but out of the goodness of their hearts.
| orphanage | (n.) a place where orphan children live |
| ergo | (adv. Latin) therefore, so |
| illegitimate | (adj.) born of unmarried parents |
| born out of wedlock | (expr.) (children) born of unmarried parents |
| celebrity | (n.) a famous person |
| foster | (v.) to take a child into one’s family for a certain period of time; foster parents often receive some money from the state for the child’s financial support |
| adoption | (n.) the act of adopting, that is becoming legal parents of a child (orphan) |
Cultural Note. In most Russian schools, students learn the expression “to be born”, but not all the forms of the verb used here as a second participle. Teachers do not always realize which verb is meant either. Consequently, strange and even scary constructions appear when teachers and students try to form the present tense or the infinitive for the word родить(ся). For example, the verb to burn (жечь; гореть) is used. How should one say it correctly?
The verb to be used is to bear (bore, born).
To bear (children) – вынашивать и рожать (детей), e.g. She bore five children. She is bearing a child. Women of child-bearing age.
To have children – рожать, заводить детей, e.g. We just got married, and we want to have two children.
To start a family – завести детей, e.g. They got married two years ago, and now they want to start a family (=to start having children or a child).
If you are interested in this story, you may wish to learn more about various aspects mentioned in it. To learn more about orphans and orphanages, you may visit