Katharine Birbalsingh
Katharine Birbalsingh is the teacher who exposed the failings of the comprehensive school system at the Conservative Party conference this year. Her speech can be seen here. She is now looking for a job. Katharine has been teaching in inner London for over a decade and loves children. This is a resurrection of her popular blog, To Miss with Love, where her name was Snuffy. Her book, also called To Miss with Love, comes out in April 2011. Follow @Miss_Snuffy on Twitter to see what Katharine's doing now. Katharine's personal website iswww.katharinebirbalsingh.com.
Michael Gove's adoption guidelines may not satisfy 'race oriented' social workers. But they'll do wonders for children
Ethnic minority children usually wait three times longer to be adopted than white children (Photo: GETTY)
Michael Gove is to unveil new adoption guidelines on Tuesday to say that race should not be a “deal-breaker” when adopting a child. In other words, white couples should be allowed to adopt black and ethnic minority children.
Until now, white couples have been unable to adopt British black or ethnic minority children, and have been forced to pay thousands of pounds abroad for the joy of adopting a child. Why? Because they’re white and there aren’t enough white babies to go round.
Social workers are so ‘race-oriented’ that when they receive an application they try to place a child with a family of the same heritage as that child. All I can say is thank goodness my parents were around when I was growing up. Otherwise I might have been in care forever. They would have had to find a mixed-race couple, one Indian, one black. I wonder if it would have been necessary for the Indian parent to be Indo-Caribbean? Or was it only race that mattered, allowing any citizen of India to have a go at raising me? I wonder if a Pakistani would have been allowed to adopt me?
It is completely absurd and yet this practice has been going on for years. As a result, ethnic minority children wait on average three times longer than white children to find a permanent home. And while they are in care, they wreak havoc on some poor school. Then we say it isn’t their fault: they’re in care. There are different rules at school for kids who are in care. They are given more leeway. They don’t get punished in the way that other kids are. And that, of course, just encourages them to misbehave all the more. I have seen a Head make a decision about a kid, and when realising the kid is in care, change his mind because he realises his hands are tied.
But the damage to schools and children doesn’t stop there. It has always been cool to be bad, and if one black kid is bad, then some of the other black kids will copy him. Even some white kids will too. So bad behaviour spreads. Then we turn around and say we’re trying to help these kids by ensuring that they’re with parents of matching racial background!
I presume the obsession with matching racial identity stems from the idea that ethnic children need to understand their position in the Western world as one of belonging to a minority group that is liable to face racism from time to time. But is it really impossible for a white family to understand this and pass their understanding to their adopted child? Surely the applicant’s capacity to give the child the right kind of love and support is what should be judged! After all, if this is a real issue, diversity training could be put to good use here.
The faster we get our ethnic kids out of care, the more likely they are to find harmony and love and the more likely they are to behave at school. This development in the adoption laws is a stroke of genius. Its results may take years to show, but its impact on schools will be immediate, not to mention how many children’s lives it will transform.
Once again, I look at what Michael Gove is doing for children and take my hat off to him. I clap my hands in glee and wonder how anyone could possibly take issue with this decision. But experience has taught me, where I see common sense and cause for jubilation, others see dark motives and corrupt intentions. I’m looking forward to what the opposition says about this one!
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