History of Child Care in America

Early Solutions and Challenges

• Creative Solutions by Working Women: From the dawn of time, women have been finding ways to solve child care issues.
• Industrial Revolution:
  • Surge of women in New England's textile mills.
  • Emergence of the first infant schools.

Setbacks in Early Childhood Education

• Psychological Claims:
  • A prominent psychologist falsely claimed early intellectual activity led to physical illness and insanity.
  • Resulted in a decline in public support for early childhood education.

Progressive Era Reforms

• Focus on Inequality:
  • Turn of the century efforts to reform and prioritize education for poor children.
• Revival of Nurseries and Kindergartens:
  • Nationwide opening of kindergartens.
  • Development of educational standards and the profession of preschool teaching.

World War II and Child Care

• Women in the Workforce:
  • With 16 million men in the armed forces, women joined the workforce in large numbers.
• Child Care Crisis:
  • Reports of unsupervised children caused public concern.
  • Congress established a nearly universal, federally subsidized child care program.
• Program Success:
  • Provided financial stability for working parents and high-quality education for children.

Modern Context

• Question Raised: Despite past successes, why doesn't today's system reflect this progress?

Stay tuned for more developments in the series "No Small Matter."