answer:During the years following World War II, the U.S. began closing orphanages – large residential institutions – and transitioning to group homes and foster care. Traditional orphanages are no longer a part of the child care system. It was considered to be a triumph, and a big step forward in social justice, when the final orphanages closed. Was this really a good reform? I honestly don’t know. On the one hand, institutionalized people are often incapable of becoming independent, functioning members of society. On the other hand, orphanages provided care, housing, and education very efficiently, and they weren’t all run and staffed by child-hating monsters. I’ve known many older people who grew up in orphanages and said that they’d always been treated kindly and kept safe. Foster homes are frightening by definition – tossing helpless children into unknown situations, with occasional visits by social workers. Certainly, there are plenty of foster parents who love children, want to care for them, and give them paths to good lives. Also, fostering to adopt is a wonderful thing. Yet, I’d be horrified if a child I care about were to enter the foster system, which seems too much like a game of roulette.