Polemics on Day Care

Betsy MacKenzie was a graduate student in community health at the University of Toronto.

Coming from a Ph.D. in human resource management, this critical analysis of the day care institution in Canada is fascinating, if unsettling. Dr. Joe graduated recently from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, and is currently writing books on the manpower potential of Canadian secondary schools and on schooling prejudice. Polemics on Day Care is the result of a private research project that included studies based on mail-in questionnaires from business and labour leaders as well as day care users and directors.

Joe addresses a huge range of issues in his attempt to offer a fair and comprehensive discussion on day care. His analysis of child development and the changing nature of family life is particularly sensitive. The questionnaires have provided a wealth of new and valuable information on day care: how directors ranked their own facilities in terms of space, ventilation, play equipment, etc.; union versus industry perceptions on how day care should be funded; income and personality profiles of participating parents.

Ultimately Joe exposes day care in Canada as a tragically destructive institution benefiting few and failing many more. Contrary to the history of our perception of day care as crisis intervention (which simply reinforces socioeconomic stratification), this book asks that we not only respond to the reality of consumer demand for child care but that we recognize that good day care is good human resource development. In the final analysis Joe recommends that 1) day care be a highly specialized developmental service in the form of a public utility financed equally by government and industry; and 2) day care be integrated completely into the public school system.

The day care movement in Canada faces monumental problems but is rapidly gaining momentum. Polemics on Day Care represents a major contribution to the social and political science needed to further mobilize the debate.