|
Book |
Quote/Comment |
Children First
What our society must do--and is not doing--for our children
today
by Penelope Leach ©1994
PART TWO: Children and Parents
Chapter 4: Daycare: Dreams and Nightmares, P80-81 |
The more economy of scale a daycare institution
offers, the worse that care will be for the children.
Category = Economics |
Children First
What our society must do--and is not doing--for our children
today
by Penelope Leach ©1994, P81 |
But childcare is so labor-intensive that any
increase in (workers') salaries has a marked effect on total costs--and
rapidly reverses economies of scale. Daycare centers are always expensive to
run and the better they are, the more they cost.
Category = Economics |
Children First
What our society must do--and is not doing--for our children
today
by Penelope Leach ©1994, P81 |
For parents, daycare centers have both practical
and emotional advantages over "other family care." Children are a center's
business, so parents assume that their child will be basically well cared
for by people who know about safety and hygiene, nutrition and health,
education and play. Because a center is a business, it can be more reliable
than any individual: always open for its stated hours and days; never down
with the flu...
And centers place few personal demands on parents who are already
overstretched between home and work.
...a center asks little more of parents than their money, reasonable
punctuality and a few civil words twice a day.
Category = Politics |
Children First
What our society must do--and is not doing--for our children
today
by Penelope Leach ©1994, P82 |
Most important of all, though, to policy-makers
and parents alike, may be the perception of institutional daycare as
"educational" and therefore positively advantageous to children. The popular
image of group daycare is a nursery-school image. Whenever daycare issues
are publicly debated, television screens are filled with pictures of three-
and four-year-olds happily playing together in an enchanting child-scale
world of bright rooms, tiny furniture and brilliantly colored "educational
toys." These are the images that inform campaigns for more daycare places.
Category = Development, Politics |
Children First
What our society must do--and is not doing--for our children
today
by Penelope Leach ©1994, P86 |
Even the best-intentioned and qualified stranger
cannot (provide that vital sense of trust and growing empowerment) because
however much she knows about babies in general, she knows nothing about this
one.
Category = Quality |
