Early Care And Education: Our Social Experiment

Abstract

Today children in the United States are living a social experiment with unknown consequences.  According to a report by Carnegie Corporation (2002), 72% of infants and toddlers spend more than 35 hours per week in care outside of their homes. An estimated 10 million children under the age of 4 are cared for by people other than their parents (Shore, 2002); a number that is higher than any other time in our history.  The importance of this social experiment is exacerbated by the number of substandard childcare programs in our country (Bergmann & Helburn, 2002).  Recent neurobiological research has provided a wealth of data that supports the need for high quality programs.  The correlation between sensitivity periods of neural development, neural plasticity, neural chemical reactivity, and early experiences are critical issues that demand that early childhood educators collectively evaluate the programs children "live" in (Diamond, 1998).  The current knowledge base in the development of young brains has provided the opportunity to influence the outcome of our social experiment