Nursery tales
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1256288,00.html
Safe, stimulating and blessed by the government, nurseries have become
the No1 choice of new parents struggling to balance work and bringing
up kids. In the past decade, private nursery places have quadrupled in
Britain, transforming the early years of millions of children. But a
growing number of childcare experts are reaching the same disquieting
conclusion - that long periods of nursery care for under-threes may be
producing more insecure and aggressive children. As the government
publishes its latest plans for childcare, Madeleine Bunting reports on
the controversial research that could halt the nursery boom
Read Nursery tales part two here
Thursday July 8, 2004
The Guardian
Five beautiful, plump babies sit in their high chairs in a
semi-circle, waiting for lunch. They are eerily quiet. Two nursery
staff move around preparing bowls, bibs and spoons. As I stand there,
I am fixed upon by 10 huge round eyes. Is it my imagination or does it
seem that their eyes are begging for interaction, for an adult smile?
Maybe it is just that they are hungry? Meanwhile, a little
four-month-old baby, recently fed and changed, has been put in a
bouncy chair on the floor where she is just out of sight, momentarily,
of a carer; she begins to cry plaintively. After a little while, a
member of staff comes to cuddle her and settle her in a cot. Did she
get her reassurance quickly enough? As quickly as a mother or father
would have given it?
Madeleine Bunting
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=18510aff.0312220439.7a76163c%40posting.google.com
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