Angry in the Great White North

The study being reported in the New York Times ought to give pause to all those people clamoring for money for daycares:

A much-anticipated report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class — and that the effect persisted through the sixth grade.

Six more years of fallout? That's an extremely long time, suggesting that this negative effect they've noticed is deeply ingrained, and potentially has life-long consequences:

The effect was slight, and well within the normal range for healthy children, the researchers found. And as expected, parents’ guidance and their genes had by far the strongest influence on how children behaved.

But the finding held up regardless of the child’s sex or family income, and regardless of the quality of the day care center. With more than two million American preschoolers attending day care, the increased disruptiveness very likely contributes to the load on teachers who must manage large classrooms, the authors argue.

The continuing research project began in 1991. The investigators have financing to follow the same children into high school, and are proposing to follow some into their 20s.

Regardless of the quality of the daycare. So a high-priced private facility or an expensive universal system -- it doesn't matter. Children raised by parents or close relatives fare better, on average, than children raised in non-familial group settings.

We can't assign blame to the daycare people. They are doing their best, and they truly have the child's best intentions in mind. But the study suggests that if wishes were fishes...the fact is that children adjust better to a school environment, which is teacher-directed, having spent their early formative years in a similar environment, that is, parent/caregiver-directed.

Maybe this should have been obvious, but then again, maybe not. Sometimes you just have to check these things in action to see what matters and what doesn't.

So what does this have to say about Canadian childcare policy? Clearly any scheme that allows the flexibility for parents to stay at home with their kids, or to use close family to help take care their kids, is superior to a scheme that considers daycare to be the only solution for parents. The Liberals and the NDP have long agitated for multi-billion programs pumping money into government-licensed daycare. The Conservatives have implemented a plan to give money directly to parents to use as they see fit when it comes to raising their children.

The Liberals accused the Conservatives of enabling parents to squander the money on beer and popcorn. This study suggests that, in fact, parents make the best parents, regardless of the suspicions of modern-day social engineering advocates.

Hey, maybe it was obvious after all.