Adoption as Diversity in the College Classroom

By "diversity in the college classroom," I mean including and acknowledging minority, seldom recognized, and oppressed groups in the curriculum.  For majors relating to "helping professions," diversity in curriculum may be more easily accomplished.  I would think that all majors could make this effort, however.  Simply put, college generally trains and educates people to have some sort of job or expertise outside of the institution upon graduation.  This often involves interacting with others, whether it be a patient, a client, a customer, a boss, a politician, a co-worker, subordinates, or students.  Diversity in the classroom, to me, broadly defined, would be a curriculum that acknowledges that the future graduate will not be working with/serving/encountering only caucasian, heterosexual, cisgender, Christian, males in society.  This also matters when it relates to the students learning the curriculum, making students feel included by acknowledging their diverse group.  Especially when it comes to majors involving "helping professions," I can't help but wonder if adoption is being included as diversity within the curriculum.

I'm not a professor, instructor, or teacher.  I am a student.  I am an adoptee, a woman, and a believer in a less-popular form of Christianity (which means I still have Christian privilege in society while not often having acceptance within the Christian community for my particular belief system of Universalism); this is the diversity I bring to the classroom, my community, and surrounding society.  These are also some of my strengths which, unfortunately, a sexist society, largely with biologically-raised/non-adopted priviledge, overcome with mainstream Christian values, sees as weakness.  As such a student, I've written out my thoughts about including adoption as diversity in the college classroom.

When talking about family, an effort should be made to acknowledge that not everyone is biologically raised, has knowledge of their ancestry, has knowledge of their narrative from birth forward, or was raised by their first parents.

When talking about First Nation's history, oppression, and issues, include the Indian Adoption Projects.  This is a part of adoption's history.  It is a part of the history of forced assimilation and oppression of the First Nation's tribes, as are the "indian boarding schools" that may be in the curriculum already.

When talking about Women's Rights and oppression, include the Baby Scoop Era.  Something like 90% of all unmarried mothers in the post-war to pre-Roe v. Wade time period surrendered their babies to adoption.  Are unjust policies against mothers included in women's history?  Do students have a firm understanding of all injustices against women, unethical adoption included, in order to identify ethical issues in the present and future?

Too often in history books, we see nice excerpts about how one marginalized group or another achieved one step closer to equality.  We hear about things, such as the women's Voting Amendment or the Civil Rights Movement but we don't hear about the struggle and pain or the oppression that was experienced in the effort to make steps forward in society.  The failure to mention how groups have been treated influences how society thinks about issues.  It is no different for adoption.  How many people know about the orphan trains?  Baby farms?  About the policies against "unwed" mothers that sought to punish them for bearing children?  How many people know of the plight of bastards in history?  If we don't learn the history, all of it, how can we ever keep it from repeating itself?

Transracial and intercountry adoptees, from their own voices, should be included in discussions of issues of race.  Issues of race they encounter in society are often times unique to their experiences.  For example: reuniting and having a language barrier with ones family of origin.  Another example: being associated with one group because of your race but identifying with another group because of the race of the family that raised you--feeling accepted in both and/or neither at the same time. 

There are a variety of people in the world who have diverse family connections: biological, born-to, born to a surrogate, adopted, a step-child, fostered, or donor conceived.  There is no "one-size fits all" response to questions, ambivalence, and concern these adult individuals may have.  One issue surrounding women is the war on women's health care.  One issue surrounding the LGBTQ community is their inability to get married, One issue surrounding people of color is being subjected to institutional racism.  However, can most people name an issue surrounding adult adoptees?  Wanting to search?  Not wanting to search?  Being found?  Not being found?  Issues about family medical history?  Issues regarding wanting to know your roots or original identity and hitting archaic barriers in the law?  Can most people name one issue surrounding surrendering mothers, such as suffering in silence?

Here's a scenario I can think of, as to why this is important.  I will use the aging population, as you may know, advocating for older adults is a passion of mine (and, I happen to have a grandmother who is adopted).

An adult adoptee in a long term care facility notices that more people are talking about adoption, something she never did growing up.  She would have wanted to talk more about it but it just wasn't done when she was a child.  She sees that adoption is much more visible in society and this intrigues her.  She wonders if it would have been OK for her to search, or, if it would be OK for her to do so now.  Even to just know where she came from.  That would be something she'd really like, she thought.  She wondered if she might have brothers and sisters out there or maybe nieces and nephews.  She wants to share her thoughts and experience as an adoptee with someone.  With great courage, she mentions this to an aide who tells the nurse who sends someone from the facility's social services office to talk to her.

How will a Social Worker with just a basic understanding of adoption issues respond?  How would one with a deeper understanding respond?

It is my hope that the Social Worker was in a class that had dedicated one slide, just one slide, in a lecture about diversity that showed a wide variety of adoption-related issues and feelings.  It is my hope that this deepened understanding would allow him or her to respond with compassion, understanding that wanting to search or not wanting to search, are both completely OK.  Will the worker know about the resources for adult adoptees to search and find more information.  Will the worker know the adoptee's rights?

One must understand the great courage it must have taken this older adult adoptee to share her thoughts and be respectful and sensitive in their answer.

That's all I'm really asking for: one slide, just one PowerPoint slide, that includes adoption as diversity within helping profession curriculum.  One slide that acknowledges loss, that acknowledges difference and uniqueness, and shows a variety of adoptee (and other "constellation" members) responses to adoption.  Something deeper than "oh adoption is a nice way to form families."  Something that acknowledges that adoptees grow up and that we will be clients of the helping profession worker in a variety of settings.  There are 6 million adoptees in the U.S. and I should not fail to include foster alumni, the donor conceived, the sons and daughters of surrogates, and all of our parents as additional individuals who may one day be the client of a helping professional.  That's a lot of people.  We cannot continue to ignore this as an element of diversity in our society any longer.  A helping professional should know an appropriate response to us, their clients, that goes deeper than society's understanding.  Getting out the skittle-crapping unicorn, for example, and telling someone how "grateful" they should be (one typical response someone expressing adoption-related ambivalence might receive in society) is just not an acceptable response.  It doesn't matter how positively or negatively someone connected to adoption views it--society's stereotyped, knee-jerked responses simply don't cut it any more.  Actually, it never really did.

One PowerPoint slide in the classroom.  One paragraph in a text book for a start.  That's all I want.  Just one.

Photo credit: digitalart