There was no planned theme for this month, but in many of the articles there is a common strand – the desire for understanding of the author’s predicament, and perhaps also for support.
The third part of the mother‘s story about adoption speaks movingly of a phase when things got difficult. We have the first chapter of a book written by A.J. Stone, Beyond Caring, which gives a graphic child’s eye view of admission to a children’s home. Valerie Jackson writes about the needs of individuals, both young and old, and assesses what quality of service may realistically be provided. From the other side of the fence, Claudia Megele asks for understanding for social workers.
Keith White considers the effect of time in giving us new perspectives and understanding of our lives. Both the Key Texts also speak of children needing to address their needs at their own pace – Aichhorn and Bettelheim, two classics from the psychotherapeutic era. Chris Durkin talks about the provision of counselling.
There’s an appreciation of the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, encouraging you to go, and a couple of Book Reviews, on healthy eating and the history of Liverpool reformatories respectively. And there’s an advance notice of next month’s theme, social pedagogy, with a plug for the Slovenian journal on social pedagogy.
Finally, in the Editorial we announce that Children Webmag is a registered educational charity, and we invite everyone to support us – whether as contributors of articles or of cash. We have worked off a modest budget to date, and are most grateful to the organisations which have kept us afloat. Given even a moderate increase in our budget, we believe we could offer a much better service, and we are looking to expand and improve the magazine.