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goodenoughcaring.com is an arena for the discussion of  issues of interest to parents, foster parents, residential child care workers, counsellors, youth support workers, social workers, teachers, mentors, social pedagogues,  educateurs  and to young people who are, and adults who have been, in care. If you are interested in, or involved in the care,upbringing and education of  children and young people or in the nurturing of children and young people who are unable to live with their own families  goodenoughcaring.com  is a site for you. The website welcomes  thoughtful views - personal, practical or theoretical -  about the care of children and young people.  If you want to comment about  child care or about goodenoughcaring.com  then  e mail   charlessharpe@dsl.pipex.com

The goodenoughcaring.com site is archived at the British Library.

The goodenoughcaring journal is an online publication which invites anyone wishing to publish papers and articles about  parenting, nurture, child care work and related fields or those wishing to write about their child care experiences to submit as e mail attachments  papers or articles for publication to the editors at charlessharpe@dsl.pipex.com.  The members of the editorial group are Evelyn Daniel, Siobain Degregorio, Jane Kenny, Ariola Vishnja, Mark Smith and Charles Sharpe. The current edition was published online on 15th June, 2011 and  the next edition will be published on December 15th,  2011.

The Journal index can be found at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.htm 

 


News, Opinion and Observation

Issue 11 of the goodenoughcaring Journal is just beyond the horizon

Issue 11 of the goodenoughcaring Journal has set all sails and is fast approaching. Its cargo is principally residential child care and it docks on June 15th, 2012. Her provisions will include articles by Phil Rampton, Zufliya Ashurmamadova, Claire Gaskins, John Cross, John Burton, Matt Vince, Mark Hardy, Kevin Ellis, John Stein, Evelyn Daniel, Alexander Bouchert and Sue Ellis. Others may soon be added to this illustrious crew. Giving the craft editorial steer will be Mark Smith. Further details of the articles and their authors will appear within a few days




Marilyn Monroe : her thoughts on childhood and being in care

In her recent essay about Marilyn Monroe, “A Rumbling of Things Unknown,” Jacqueline Rose reminds us that Marilyn Monroe was with little question ‘born on the wrong side of the tracks.’ Marilyn spent her childhood moving from one foster home to another in Los Angeles, living for a few snatched years with her mother who had reclaimed her before being taken away, watched by her daughter, to a mental home. When Marilyn was sent to an orphanage at the age of nine, she protested she was no orphan, since her mother was still alive, and this was something she continued to insist upon until the end of her own life.

In later years, Marilyn Monroe observed that while her 'childhood experiences had given her an understanding of the needs of the young, sick and persecuted,' her own ‘lack of any consistent love and caring' had resulted in her having 'a mistrust and fear of the world.'

In her final interview for Life Magazine in 1962 she said, 'I was brought up differently from the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.'



Reference : Jacqueline Rose “A Rumbling of Things Unknown” in The London Review of Books, Vol.34 No.8, 26 April,2012, pp 29-34.




Radio broadcast on Social Pedagogy

Gabriel Eichsteller has written to us about a live stream on Radio Edutalk on April 18th, 2012. Radio Edutalk is an online resource for professionals in education. As part of their weekly features on a range of educational themes, Gabriel will be discussing social pedagogy. The title is Social pedagogy: Scottish reflections on Danish child care practice” and Gabriel will be joined by two residential child care workers from Care Visions who undertook two placements in Danish social pedagogical settings during a recent EU Leonardo Mobility project.

You can listen in, ask questions and comment through Radio Edutalk’s website. You can also phone in with your reflections The 1-hour programme starts at 4.30pm on Wednesday (18th April), go to http://edutalk.cc/pages/radio-edutalk but if you miss the talk you can also access it as a podcast afterwards.




Issue 10 of the goodenoughcaring Journal is now online ! In this issue different aspects of fatherhood and what it is to be a father are explored in a poem by Jan Noble, and in articles by Joyce Carol Oates, Alex Russon, Mark Smith and our inspiration for choosing this theme, John Stein. We have two contrasting accounts of a child observation. In one Marie Tree considers the opportunity for reflection a child observation provided her while Moira Strachan observes the relationship of a young boy and his male carer in a nursery school. Marion Bennathan writes about nurture groups in schools and Cynthia Cross recollects the nature of residential child care in the 1960s and compares it to current practice. Jeremy Millar revisits the work and thoughts of Chris Beedell. Noel Howard has written a moving review of Danny Ellis' CD 800 Voices : the heartache and the healing. John Molloy provides a review of Richard Webster's book The Secret of Bryn Estyn. Bob Forrest presents The Kerelaw Papers (The Final Act) and Pat Petrie tells us about the Sing Up for Looked After Children project and its social pedagogic base.


The Journal index can be found at http://www.goodenoughcaring.com/JournalIndex.htm 



Richard Webster

The sad news of the death of Richard Webster during the summer of last year prompted many responses from visitors to our website about Richard and his writing and these were formerly posted on this page. They can now all be found on the goodenoughcaring blog at http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com


The Care Leavers' Association

The Care Leavers' Assocation is a network of care leavers run by care leavers for care leavers. If you have experienced a childhood in care this is an opportunity to be part of a groundbreaking network which offers opportunities to socialise, to meet other care leavers, to share experiences and to get involved with care leavers' issue in meetings that are for care leavers only.
To find out more about CLA  contact Darren Coyne at darren.coyne@careleavers.com or 'phone him on 0161 236 1980/0790 4485921


Therapeutic Child Care and Social Pedagogy 

This  page, edited by Mark Smith, was introduced to reflect the growing interest in social pedagogy in the UK.  A principal focus of the page is residential child care though the ideas which underpin social pedagogy have relevance to the nurture of all children. Your comments as well as articles relevant to this new page are welcomed and should  sent be to Mark.smith@ed.ac.uk


Earlier nrews,opinion and observation pieces published on this page may be found at  http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com

Previous news items can be found  http://goodenoughcaringnewsarchive.blogspot.com


© goodenoughcaring.com


Useful Links  

National Children's Bureau  http://www.ncb.org.uk  

Scottish Institute of Residential Child Care  http://www.sircc.strath.ac.uk

Psychoanalysis and Therapy    http://www.psychoanalysis-and-therapy.com

Childhood    http://www.childhood.org

Children Webmag     http://www.childrenwebmag.com/

The Planned Environment Therapy Trust   http://www.pettarchiv.org.uk

The goodenoughcaringblog     http://goodenoughcaring.blogspot.com

Irish Institute of Social Care Educators    http://www.iasce.ie/

The International Child and Youth Care Network,  CYC-NET   http://www.cyc-net.org

Clare Winnicott : Life and Work   http://www.clarewinnicott.net   

The Child Care History Network  http://www.cchn.org.uk/ 

The Care Leavers' Association   http://www.careleavers.com

Simon Hammond's webpage  http://www.uea.ac.uk/swp/People/Research+Students/Simon+Hammond

Adrian Ward's website http://www.adrianward.org.uk

John Whitwell's website  http://www.johnwhitwell.co.uk/ 

Social Care Ireland http://www.socialcareireland

Residential Child Care Network  http://www.residentialchildcarenetwork.com/

THe Irish Association of Social Care Workers http://www.iascw.ie

The goodenoughcaring news archive  http://goodenoughcaringnewsarchive.blogspot.com

Kibble Education and Youth Care http://www.kibble.org


 
If you are interested in the counselling services I offer, e mail me at charlessharpe@dsl.pipex.com