Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/child-care-research-comes-of-age-the-nichd-study-of-early-child-care/5011835/
During the 30 or so years that I have been involved in child care research and administration, the field has been plagued with claims and counterclaims, praise and denunciation, acceptance and rejection. Even so, child care has come a long way. From an obscure service that most people had never heard of or thought about, it has risen to a position of national prominence and makes every list of key issues for the present and future of our nation and the world.But general acceptance of the value of the service has not necessarily been an automatic accompaniment of this increase in attention and public awareness. Instead, child care continues to polarize people. Some perceive it as a valuable family support program and as a way of fostering optimal development in young children; others consider it to be family-weakening and as somehow depriving children of the uninterrupted interactions with their mothers regarded as essential for favorable socio-emotional and cognitive development. When this kind of polarization exists about the merits of any particular service, the only way to move public opinion more consistently to one side or the other is to strengthen the knowledge base upon which the practice rests. And certainly this ...