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Book |
Quote/Comment |
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Early Childcare: Infants
and Nations at Risk by Dr. Peter Cook, ©1996, Chapter 9,
Some Other Child Care Issues and Risks, P142 |
Extensive non-parental care in infancy is without
long-term precedent in humans or any other mammals.
...The burden of proof that such changes in the early environment of infants
are safe should be on those who advocate them...
...As in medicine, the precautionary principle of primum non nocere
- "first and foremost do no harm" - should apply.
Category = Quality |
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Early Childcare: Infants
and Nations at Risk by Dr. Peter Cook, ©1996, P142-143 |
...Children have given no consent
We noted earlier that repeated studies have shown that infants prefer
their mothers to day carers*, so we have no reason to suppose that they would
consent to forgo their normal birthright of being reared by their parents,
relatives and friends, and consent to spending most of their waking hours in
child care centres.
Harsman's observations support the view that infants are the involuntary,
and usually protesting, subjects of this experiment to replace their daily
experiences of mothering with child care of quality that cannot be
controlled. Very young children are guinea pigs** in
the child care industry's social experiment in proxy child rearing, being
recruited without their consent in their most vulnerable years.
**Carers- Caregivers
**Guinea pigs = test animals
Category = Quality |
|
Early Childcare: Infants
and Nations at Risk by Dr. Peter Cook, ©1996, P143 |
In a medical setting it is negligent
to withhold such information of risk, and could readily lead to
litigation. People are rightly angry if they are denied the option of
information about risks in medical procedures or prescriptions. Is
daycare different because criticism of day care is politically incorrect...?
Category = Politics
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|
Early Childcare: Infants
and Nations at Risk by Dr. Peter Cook, ©1996, P143 |
Risks should be acknowledged. Day care
advocates have no mandate to obscure or conceal them. It is
unjustifiable and patronising* to say that informing parents of these risks
will induce guilt, and therefore we should keep them in ignorance of risks
which they might be unwilling to accept if they understood them. Most
parents are very careful about exposing their children to any unnecessary
risks.
*patronizing = disrespectful & insulting
Category = Politics |
