Author Explores Lives of 'Practice Babies' Once Raised on College Campuses

In the 50s girls at that age were thinking about marriage. This program was probably something most of them were interested in. In those days 18 years old were expected to be adults. You cannot put today's standards and ideas up as an example for what was done and expected years ago.

I'm thinking of the needs babies have for a primary caregiver and consistent parenting. None of that was given to them. I was wondering how many of these children ended up with Reactive Attachment Disorder and were unable to attach to their eventual adoptive parents.

That's true because the size of families has shrunk. It used to be that kids learned how to care for other kids and how to treat a spouse from watching their parents and helping with the siblings. Now kids are spoiled rotten and raised to dump and run at the first sign of marital strife. They also have no clue how to raise kids.

Absolutely better than lying in a crib all day. In the fifties it was a way less hectic time than today. And the value system was also different. There were actually some values....
Although I was 10 in the mid 50's, I still remember it was a better time than all the technological mumbo-jumbo of today. A child was allowed to be a child for a few years....

these aren't baby toys... they are tiny human children.... would you lend your granny out so someone could practice elder care??!...or your puppy out so that someone could learn to house train??!!...

I don't know what's more horrible.... this thoughtless concept.... or the inability of so many even today to get how damaging this was to those who had no rights or choice....

@ kj- yes, children are not toys and perhaps if the people who left thier child at an orphanage would of realized that then perhaps they would of had a better start. Whether you disagree with it or not, it did happen. These women cared for the children and made sure thier needs were met much like a nanny or a babysitter does. Do you realize that there was a time when mothers hired other women to nurse and raise thier children?!
It was a different time but it did teach the women just how hard it is to raise a child. And those babies who may not of had someone to hold them while they were crying in the orphanage, well, at least they got personal one-on-one time.
There is a couple in my church who adopted a five year old from Eastern Europe and when they went to pick him up, the director of the orphanage said that the little boy was not held until he was three years old! And now this child has so much to overcome because he never felt loved.
Trust me, it could be worse!!!

I sort of agree. Just think about what those little babies must have thought when they were taken from friendly teenagers who did feed and bathe them and thrown back into a cold orphanage where the sat hoping to be adopted. What if no one came and adopted them?

Oh please get over it, be lucky it was a mild title especially coming from that era of non PC. Think about it lady, adopted or not, we are all lab rats. Where you not loved by your adopted parents? Geez blow your nose and move on! Poor babies, gimme a break, that was attention and care. Roll with the punches!!!!

Ok, so rather than having received the nurturing that you possibly could have, being in the right age group and circumstances to have been one of these babies, you'd have rather been left in the orphanage? For crying out loud, you are an ungrateful wretch. You were nurtured, cared for, and loved (yes, these young women were capable of loving their infant charges), and possibly healthier for the exprience and you are going to gripe about what the program was called? Be THANKFUL someone took the time to care for you at all.

I was born in 1963, and adopted by a military family in 1964, I have no idea where I was until then, there are no records. I have not heard of this before but it kind of makes me feel better-- seems a whole lot better than laying in a crib at an orphanage. This is an interesting article.

Janice..do you always blast people for the way they feel and tell them how they should feel? I hope not!

My Mom told me how she lived in a house with other women at her University, all Home Econ majors, and part of their requirements was to raise one of these babies for a year. I thought it was very odd, but she said at the time (early 40's) it was just 'how it was done' for that particular degree. She loved taking care of the baby, and didn't really see the problem. I did ask her what happened to the babies when they were 'done' and she said they were usually adopted by University professors, and that she said there was quite a waiting list of adoptive parents who wanted these children. Just remember it was a different time before you judge.

Janice, your comment is ignorant. No, we are not all "experimented on." You have no idea what it is like being adopted unless you were adopted yourself. If you have never known what it was like to have no family medical history, no access to ancestry, no access to biological ties, never seeing someone who looks like you, and furthermore, have not had origins where you were stigmatized and experimented on...how in the world can you tell someone who has experienced those things how to feel??

And what does this have to do with Adoptive Parents? Adoption is about the rights and needs of the children involved; not stifling one's emotions for some perceived validation of their parents. My parents, like all parents should be, are interested in my feelings and advocate for my rights as an adopted person. To suggest that an adopted person is not allowed to feel or express pain, wonderment at their origins, or speak up about unethical issues in adoption, because they might hurt their parents feelings, is extremely offensive to those parents. My parents are wonderful--what does that have to do with parts of my life that are not wonderful? How would you like it if every issue you spoke about was blamed by society on your parents? Then told you to "get over it?"

Good grief. Adoption has been around for over 100 years. Are people still this ignorant?

I am a single women who teaches. I can't imagine that I would ever change my career - one that in which the fundamental belief is that children are the most important thing in the world. You sound bitter to and jealous of career women.