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Quotes
from books about daycare -
2005-2006,
p11
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Book |
Quote/Comment |
Raising Babies:
Should under 3s go to nursery?
by Steve Biddulph,
©2005, p.128 |
In a (childcare) setting where the adults are busy,
(a quiet) child is more likely to be labeled 'good' and to get even less of
the carer's time than if they made a fuss.
This is not the fault of the carer* -- in most
cases they try their best...but there are two significant factors working
against them. They are not the parent of the child, and they rarely have a
long-term stable relationship with them. Both child and carer are just
passing through each other's lives. It would be a cause of grief for either
to care too much for the other, and both need to withhold their feelings for
their own self-protection.
Carer = Daycare
Worker
Category = Quality |
Raising Babies:
Should under 3s go to nursery?
by Steve Biddulph,
©2005, p.128 |
A nursery (daycare) situation never has a
one-to-one ratio of carer to baby -- it would be prohibitively expensive.
The best nurseries have one carer to three babies, and often this is one to
five or six when carers are filling forms, taking a break, or performing
other duties. So the child gets only a fraction of the time and energy that
it ideally needs.
Category = Economics, Quality |
Raising Babies:
Should under 3s go to nursery?
by Steve Biddulph,
©2005, p.129 |
A nursery (day-care) environment is stressful for
babies and toddlers; we know this because it can be measured with cortisol*
testing.
...Recently, some US researchers found that cortisol levels in a child at
home are highest in the morning -- the exciting part of the day-- and
gradually fall away as the day goes on, but in a nursery, they actually rise
as the day goes on.
*cortisol =
stress hormone
Category = Disease |
Raising Babies:
Should under 3s go to nursery?
by Steve Biddulph,
©2005, p.130-131 |
At the heart of the daycare problem is the gap
between the ideal and the reality. Today's highly commercialized nursery
industry wraps its product in a rosy glow of feel-good propaganda.
Nurseries (daycares) have cute names such as Peter Pan's Place, Teddy Bear's Castle, and Happy
Land. The terminology is continuously being updated -- what was in the 1970s
a child-minding centre, in the 1980s became a childcare centre
and today is called an early learning centre, each stage matching the
changing anxieties of each generation of parents.
In the US, daycare centres sound pragmatic and efficient, in the
UK the name nursery has all the warm connotations of Peter Pan or
Mary Poppins*. The UK's leading nursery chain manages to cover all the
parental anxieties with its corporate motto -- Safe, Loved and Learning. What
more could a parent ask for? Sadly, the second of these seems to me an
impossibility. Whilst individuals may be very caring,
love is the one thing in the whole world that a corporation cannot provide.
(Italics added above for clarity--Editor)
* Mary Poppins - P.L. Travers' story of a fictional nanny
* Peter Pan - James Matthew Barrie's story of a fictional boy who never
grows up
Category = Economics |
Raising Babies:
Should under 3s go to nursery?
by Steve Biddulph,
©2005, p. 131 |
(Childcare)
is big business, driven by marketing, and the client is the parent, not the
child. Nurseries are advertised on television with bouncy music,
good-looking staff and kids having fun.
Category = Economics |
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Quotes
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books about daycare - 2005-2006,
p11 |
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Last updated:
04/10/2006
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