Parens patriae

Parens patriae is the credo Eileen associates with Moorehead, and her retrospective description makes it a point of tension between the institution’s stated principle and her experience of the boys in its care. She remembers the motto with a cringe, calling it laughable rather than presenting it as a convincing account of life at Moorehead.

The Credo at Moorehead

Eileen identifies Parens patriae as Moorehead’s credo but does not explain its formal meaning or describe how staff applied it. The evidence establishes the phrase as the institution’s guiding claim, while leaving its policies and practical operation unspecified. Its significance in her account comes instead from the contrast between the language of care implied by the credo and the fear, judgment, and desire she recalls feeling around the boys.

Eileen’s Retrospective View

Eileen remembers the boys as very young, “just children,” yet says they frightened her because she believed they disliked her and did not find her attractive. In response, she tried to dismiss them as dunces and wild animals. That defensive judgment did not hold consistently: some boys were grown, tall, and handsome, and she admits she was not immune to them. Her recollection complicates any simple opposition between institutional authority and its wards; Moorehead’s credo is filtered through her own vulnerability, shame, and ambivalent perception of the children it was meant to govern.