Corrective socialization in foster care of children

While the phrase, "interminable foster care" is becoming a damning cliché in the dialogues of juvenile courts and child welfare organizations, many children are growing up in foster homes. Human love must move us to approve and enrich these foster families; childhood is too brief and important to be knowingly allowed disapproved or impoverished experience. This paper describes the foster situation: families, children, and the involved professionals. It then presents a teachable developmental theory weaved from threads of numerous known theories, and describes a process whereby "interminable" foster experience was used therapeutically for a group of handicapped homeless children.