http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Moira_MacDonald/2004/11/08/705054.html


COLUMNIST
Mon, November 8, 2004
The downside of daycare
Early education, yes; lack of choice, no
By Moira MacDonald -- For the Toronto Sun

Early childhood education. Get used to the term. You'll be hearing lots more about it.

Feminists and daycare activists have lobbied the federal government for decades to create a national child care program.

Little has happened. Meanwhile, Quebec's government subsidizes universal, $7-a-day child care to the tune of more than $1.3 billion a year.

But Prime Minister Paul Martin more recently pledged $1 billion a year over the next five years for early childhood education. Last month, there was more talk when the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development decried Canada's childcare system (even though only four provinces, not including Ontario, agreed to participate), as fellow columnist Connie Woodcock wrote about last week.

And our local Toronto District School Board is also poised to ride the wave of new attention, pushing for a national strategy on child and youth development.

"This is getting discussed all over," the school board's director David Reid tells me. "We need to connect those dots. We are the biggest school board in Canada and we want to do our best to encourage this debate."

To that end, the board plans to bring in speakers on the issue and possibly hold a conference on it next spring to get people talking even more.

It has already had early childhood development guru Dr. Fraser Mustard speak to trustees and staff about the importance of early brain stimulation to avoid future problems society will have to pay more for down the line (including special education and jails). Other planned speakers include John Abbott, president of the British-based 21st Century Learning Initiative, and federal Minister of Social Development, Ken Dryden.

"One of the best investments in society is the investment you make in child development -- I believe in that with all my heart," Reid says.

He wants different levels of government and departments, including health, social services and education, to start deciding how to take down bureaucratic barriers and work together so we get a better bang for the tax bucks that are being directed to kids anyway. But there is also self-interest.

"Public education is not sustainable on the basis of provincial funding," Reid says. "We need a federal role and federal money."

With enrolments dropping, the school system is going to have a harder and harder time paying for its buildings. Reid says if they were used for more than just schooling -- which accounts for just 20% of the time -- they could also be paid for by more than just the school system. A good idea -- but first we'll need a major shift in thinking so schools are seen as public assets and not just school board property.

Reid is treading on tricky ground, though that doesn't mean he shouldn't try.

Education is a provincial responsibility. While the provinces would love more federal money for everything, including health care, they bristle at the idea the feds will have a say over how they use it.

And as the parent of a two-year-old, I am wary about too much government influence over a child's earliest years.

Parental input
The public school system has already proven itself to be slow -- sometimes incapable -- in responding to parental wants and input. At least before my child turns five or six, I have full reign and responsibility over who will look after him, how and what he will be taught. It works.

Whatever happens, we need a system for young children that both gives them the best start and puts responsibility on parents as a child's ultimate caregivers and teachers.

Ontario's Early Years Centres, set up by the outgoing Tory government based on Fraser Mustard's research, reflect this, with places for parents to drop in with their pre-schoolers and get help with parenting skills. (I'd argue even more could be done at these centres to help parents teach the building blocks of reading and working with numbers, however.)

What we don't need is yet another government program that takes the responsibility and the say right out of parents' hands --again.

Next Column: Phys-ed classes, union talks, it all adds up
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Reach Moira MacDonald at: moiramac@canoemail.com
Letters to the editor should be sent to: editor@tor.sunpub.com
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