Persuasive Writing - Should The Ewell Children be put into Care?
Persuasive Writing - Should The Ewell Children be put into Care?
I am very strongly supporting the idea that the Ewell children should be put into care. They are being very badly mistreated and no child should have to go through this. If the children stay with their father any longer, they will get even more physically and mentally scarred until it is beyond repair.
Some people may say that the best environment a child could grow up in is with his/her biological parents. The mother has carried the child since conception to birth and the baby and parents are genetically connected. However, in this case, the mother is dead and are we really sure that Bob Ewell is the father of all the children? Mr. Ewell did say in court "If I ain't (Mayella's father) I can't do nothing about it now, her ma's dead." This shows that Bob Ewell should not have custody of the children.
Another point the opposition may put forward is that the children would have to be split up from their siblings if they went into care. I would have to disagree with this. A senior British Association of Adoption and Fostering member said "When in such cases that the children of the same family are not able to be placed together in the same family, there is ample opportunity for visits. Care will be taken to make sure the families are not situated far from each other." From this quotation we can see that the Ewell children will have plenty of opportunity to see each other. Also, Mayella may be old enough not to go into care, so could visit as freely as she wants.
It has been said by people against children being removed from their homes, that children become mentally ill from moving from foster home to foster home. These children resort to injuring themselves, and possible suicide. One statistic put forward is that up to 50% of children become this way. From my research I have discovered that the actual figure, from the BAAF is below 5%. Of these cases, very few are serious enough for them to resort to harming themselves.
One thing I have discovered from researching this topic is that the opinion of some people is ...
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It has been said by people against children being removed from their homes, that children become mentally ill from moving from foster home to foster home. These children resort to injuring themselves, and possible suicide. One statistic put forward is that up to 50% of children become this way. From my research I have discovered that the actual figure, from the BAAF is below 5%. Of these cases, very few are serious enough for them to resort to harming themselves.
One thing I have discovered from researching this topic is that the opinion of some people is that foster carers do not give enough love and support to their fostered children. I cannot agree with this in the case of the Ewells, as their father doesn't love them at all. If anything he uses them as workers around the house. I got this quote from a website. "With my parents I dreaded coming home from school every day. They always had something to blame me for. I was an only child so I got all of the abuse from my parents. Some days, they would make me watch them eat and then beat me if I asked for something more than what I got. Now, with Mr and Mrs Morton (his foster parents) and Michael (their son), I love being at home, because there is such an atmosphere of love and care at the house. I don't see my parents anymore. I don't miss them either." We can obviously see that a child can experience feeling loved for the first time with foster carers.
The legal definition of 'significant harm' is "the suffering experience by children when witnessing the ill treatment of another person." When a child is considered to be at risk of 'significant harm', intervention will be compulsory. Obviously, the Ewell children fall under this category so help is necessary for them. We know for sure that Bob Ewell raped and beat Mayella for one, and often does when he has been drinking. It pains me to think how many of the other children are abused and in what way. Would you just sit back and let this happen? I for on would definitely not.
All children are entitled to an education by law. The only time the Ewell children go to school is on the first day of term. This is unacceptable and Bob Ewell should not be allowed to get away with this. Children who do not get an education will find it very difficult to get a job so, if they have a family; they will be unable to support them. This will start a chain of events so all children in generations to come will not be well treated. Altogether, 17% of illiterate adults life in below standard accommodation, and can barely support themselves.
Bob Ewell doesn't make an effort to provide for his children. He is very lazy and can't keep a job. In 'To Kill A Mockingbird', Scout says, "...he was the only man I ever heard of who was fired from the W.P.A. for laziness." This explains the squalor that the Ewells live in. Any money Bob Ewell does get, from the Welfare Office, he spends on alcohol. In America, abuse is 14 times more common and neglect is 44 times more common in poor families. This is unacceptable in any community and do you think Bob Ewell should be allowed to do this?
Another reason why the Ewell children should definitely be put into care is that many of them are young. Children under the age of two need three times as much attention as six year olds. Even when Bob Ewell is sober, I doubt he could give this much attention to his children. Even with Mayella there, there is too much pressure for her to cope by herself. These children could easily injure themselves and other children at the Ewell house. With candles and lanterns around the house, a small child could easily knock one over and burn the whole place to the ground, putting many lives at risk, not only the Ewells.
Hygiene is a very big problem with the Ewells. In the books it says "no public health officer could free them (the Ewells) from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings." Also, in school a "cootie" crawled out of Burris Ewell's hair. Even though Burris didn't seem to mind, he, nor any other children, should be subjected to live in such a filthy, disgusting, unsanitary environment.
In conclusion I would like to say that not only should the children be taken away from Bob Ewell, but he be punished. He has made his children live like animals for too long and now he must pay the price for this. I demand that Mayella, Burris and the rest of the children be put into care, where they do not have to put up with their father.
Christopher Russell 11T English Mrs Giffin
