Officials rejected mega-orphanages as impractical for rural vocational training

Evidence

But Van Delden’s plan to gather 750 children in such a rural orphanage was ludicrous. How, Stortenbeker asked, could they possibly educate such large numbers in practical rural work without a hugely expanded personnel? And even if it were conceivable, it would do nothing for the “hundreds of children who remain badly cared for and without supervision in the villages” and who belonged in the school. Maintaining the quality of food, education, and child care would be impossible. Such oversized orphanages would only make matters worse. With that characteristic impatience officials reserved for their inferiors, he dismissed the whole plan. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 786