What do you think?
Rate this book
The Home: A Memoir of Growing Up in an Orphanage
Richard McKenzie was 10 years old when he and his brother were dropped off at an orphanage in North Carolina. Their mother had committed suicide and their alcoholic and abusive father could not care for them. The Home, as everyone called it, provided the children with the stability they needed to build character and self-respect. Some were orphans, but most were victims of poverty and neglect, and the home provided them with a safe shelter. McKenzie sayed until he finished high school and went on to college, as did most of the orphans. He is a professor of economics and the author of twenty-five books. Remarkably most of his friends at The Home have had similiar successes. Today, our foster care system is strained beyond capacity; countless children languish in broken families with insufficient means. McKenzie shines a refreshing clear light on the ongoing debate about the proper fate of these children. His story reminds us that institutional care can be the best choice for children trapped in horrible circumstances.
- GenresMemoir
228 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
61 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 20, 2024
This started out to be a fascinating memoir but veered off halfway through into narrative nonfiction.
September 12, 2016
It was the cover that drew me. An elderly gentleman looking back through time at the boy he once was and a little boy with a contented smile looking out a window at the place grounds of he calls Home, a world of possibilities before him. To look at him you would never think the boy was in an orphanage. Far from one of the infamous Romanian and Russian dumping grounds, The Home was synonymous with sanctuary and salvation, a place where shattered pieces were remade into productive lives and the happy memories of a true childhood liberated from dysfunction. By no means a perfect place, but a safe place to grow and learn, heal and play, dream and come of age, all the same. Those are the things the author found when he was abandoned to an orphanage in 1950s North Carolina after his mother's suicide.
With family breakdown at epidemic levels, many American children of all creeds and races find themselves without safe and secure homes and functional families to return to at night, either forced to continue languishing in broken homes or thrusted into the over burdened foster care system. McKenzie's poignant memoir, sweeps the reader away to a bygone little known or talked about era in American history when he himself was one of our nation's hidden social orphans and with hardwon effectively makes the case that institutionalized care, not mythical forever families or endless chances for obviously unfit parents, can be the best option for children trapped in the worst circumstances.
With family breakdown at epidemic levels, many American children of all creeds and races find themselves without safe and secure homes and functional families to return to at night, either forced to continue languishing in broken homes or thrusted into the over burdened foster care system. McKenzie's poignant memoir, sweeps the reader away to a bygone little known or talked about era in American history when he himself was one of our nation's hidden social orphans and with hardwon effectively makes the case that institutionalized care, not mythical forever families or endless chances for obviously unfit parents, can be the best option for children trapped in the worst circumstances.
March 9, 2025
This book is part memoir, and part advocacy for institutionalized child care over the foster care system.
Author Richard McKenzie was dropped off by his aunts at an orphanage in the 1950’s. He was 10 years old, his father was an abusive alcoholic who could not hold a job, and his mother had committed suicide by putting her head in the gas oven, letting 10 year-old Richard and his 12-year-old brother find her.
Richard repeatedly goes on to say that his experiences at the orphanage were predominantly positive, and inordinately safer than an existence with his parents would have been. He credits the structure of the orphanage and a few dedicated employees with his eventual success as a college graduate, economist and college professor.
Among the positives he mentions: adequate food and shelter, hard work that developed a work ethic, a religious education and attention to his basic educational needs, including assistance with college education. Camaraderie with his bunk mates, and endless adventures on the farm/woods property surrounding the home.
He is honest, also, about negative aspects, some of which were horrible to me: group animal abuse, children being expected to work 50 plus hours a week in addition to school responsibilities at difficult manual labor, physical abuse at the hands of one employee in the name of discipline, vulnerability to the sexual advances of men, a lack of nurturing or intimacy due to the institutional setting, and a pervasive sense of abandonment. Being separated siblings in a manner that effectively ends the relationship.
While I cannot discount the opinion of someone who actually lived through this experience, I do feel as one of Richard’s fellow orphan’s expressed, that there is some level of denial embedded into Richard’s advocacy for an institution such as this.
McKenzie acknowledges that the world has changed, (and this book was actually published on the mid-1990s, although I am reading it in 2025). The rigor and practices of this institution would not be permitted in the world today, and the availability of drugs has changed the landscape of caring for at-risk adolescents.
As abortion has been outlawed in several states in recent years, and substance abuse and mental illness seem to be on the rise, I have to wonder if the need for institutionalized child care will again increase to pre Roe V Wade levels, and wonder what this will mean for the future of children.
Author Richard McKenzie was dropped off by his aunts at an orphanage in the 1950’s. He was 10 years old, his father was an abusive alcoholic who could not hold a job, and his mother had committed suicide by putting her head in the gas oven, letting 10 year-old Richard and his 12-year-old brother find her.
Richard repeatedly goes on to say that his experiences at the orphanage were predominantly positive, and inordinately safer than an existence with his parents would have been. He credits the structure of the orphanage and a few dedicated employees with his eventual success as a college graduate, economist and college professor.
Among the positives he mentions: adequate food and shelter, hard work that developed a work ethic, a religious education and attention to his basic educational needs, including assistance with college education. Camaraderie with his bunk mates, and endless adventures on the farm/woods property surrounding the home.
He is honest, also, about negative aspects, some of which were horrible to me: group animal abuse, children being expected to work 50 plus hours a week in addition to school responsibilities at difficult manual labor, physical abuse at the hands of one employee in the name of discipline, vulnerability to the sexual advances of men, a lack of nurturing or intimacy due to the institutional setting, and a pervasive sense of abandonment. Being separated siblings in a manner that effectively ends the relationship.
While I cannot discount the opinion of someone who actually lived through this experience, I do feel as one of Richard’s fellow orphan’s expressed, that there is some level of denial embedded into Richard’s advocacy for an institution such as this.
McKenzie acknowledges that the world has changed, (and this book was actually published on the mid-1990s, although I am reading it in 2025). The rigor and practices of this institution would not be permitted in the world today, and the availability of drugs has changed the landscape of caring for at-risk adolescents.
As abortion has been outlawed in several states in recent years, and substance abuse and mental illness seem to be on the rise, I have to wonder if the need for institutionalized child care will again increase to pre Roe V Wade levels, and wonder what this will mean for the future of children.
March 26, 2019
An interesting read about someone looking back on his own childhood growing up in an orphanage. He defends orphanages that they are not always as grim as people generally imagine them to be and that they can provide a safe stable environment for children who have no place else to go. I sympathized with the author having a family that placed him in a home rather than trying to raise him themselves. However growing up in an orphanage taught him work ethics and learning to make the best of a less than perfect childhood. I would have liked to have seen more detail about the stories from others in the home. I applauded the author for attending college and even obtaining a ph.d. I think this book would be interesting to anyone interested in reading about orphanages.
August 5, 2018
Read about 60 pages and gave up. There may be a worthwhile idea in there, but skip the book.
September 18, 2012
An interesting read, though fairly heavy with the Protestant work ethic mindset. I would have liked him to explore and include the experiences of those who came out of 'The Home' with a negative view of the orphanage system, as he seems to be remembering what sounds like pretty awful conditions with rosy glasses. If you happen to have a sensitive mind when it comes to animal abuse, avoid at all costs. In the very early chapters, there are incidents related about murdering animals that will upset me for a while.
Read
March 15, 2012It was alright, not really my type of book that i would read, but I felt good reading it.
January 21, 2016
A different perspective on what it means to be an 'O' word.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.