The Erosion of Childhood

by Valerie Polakow

How can child care be structured to protect both the interests of children and the rights of women? Must children suffer the "loss" of their childhood through institutional care? Polakow uses her observations of pre-school centers--including profit-run, federally funded, community, and Montessori institutions--to open the "windows of daycare."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226780058
• ISBN13: 9780226780054
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Erosion of Childhood

I recommend this book to anyone employed in the field of early childhood education however, the author gives a very opinionated and one-sided view of the cruelty and profit associated with child care. As an early childhood professional and mother of four children myself, I have seen facilities which are worse than some depicted in this book but I have also seen many which were wonderful. While I believe the book opens the readers eyes to these inappropriate and unscrupulous sites, I feel her book does not help the field and only sets it back to the era of the McMartin trials.