Libraries Speaker Series
“Homecoming” Filmmaker Richard McKenzie Exposes Myths of Orphanage
Life
The UCI Libraries’ Speaker Series presents Richard B. McKenzie in a program
about his research debunking common myths about orphanages. Excerpts from his
documentary film, “Homecoming: The Forgotten World of America’s Orphanages,”
will be shown.
Date: Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Lecture: 5:30 p.m.
Reception: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Langson Library
Information:
Free and open to the public.
Limited seating; reservations required. Call (949) 824-5300.
Richard McKenzie is professor of economics in the Graduate School of Management
at UCI and executive producer of “Homecoming” – a documentary
that features alumni of four American orphanages recalling their childhood experiences
and how life in an orphanage impacted their lives. The film was recently shown
at the Newport Beach Film Festival to sold-out audiences.
McKenzie grew up in the 1950s in North Carolina at Barium Springs Home for
Children, an experience that led him to write the book The Home: A Memoir
of Growing Up in an Orphanage. For the past eight years, McKenzie has surveyed
more than 2,500 alumni from 14 orphanages and found that, contrary to conventional
wisdom, they have outpaced by wide margins their age counterparts in the general
population on almost all social and economic measures, including education, income
and attitude toward life. McKenzie’s research has led him to conclude that
America’s closing of many children’s homes and replacing them with
foster care was misguided.
McKenzie has written numerous books on economic policy, and his columns and
general-interest articles have appeared in almost all of the country’s major
national and regional newspapers. OC Metro magazine selected him as one
of the “Hottest 25 People in Orange County for 2002” for developing
a class that evaluated the rise and fall of Enron Corp.
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