They Cage the Animals at Night

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. As of 2021, there are over 391,000 children and young adults in the foster care system in the US. While only 18-22% of the general population is estimated to have mental health disorders, up to 80% of children in foster care have significant mental health disorders. Why do you think this is so? What do you know about the foster care system that might explain this statistic?

Teaching Suggestion: A basic understanding of the foster care system in the US (and how it relates to but is distinct from the US adoption system) will be helpful background before beginning this nonfiction work. Students may have a sense of the foster care system’s weaknesses and challenges; with this discussion, it may be helpful to introduce the theme The Ephemerality of Happiness and Comfort for Children in Foster Care. As students in the class may know individuals who have had experiences with the foster care system or may have experiences with foster care themselves, it may be helpful to review the Child Placement Agency’s recommendations on how to have sensitive, open discussions in the classrooms on matters involving foster care in “