In the field, many of us like to refer to ourselves as a "early childhood educators" or "early learning specialists". It's our attempt to raise the level of public awareness that this is a legitimate profession!

I have to respond to the need for more subsidize care. Instead of increasing child care subsidies, (which are federally funded) wouldn't it be wonderful if it was an option for parents to get paid to stay home with their own children. Currently in this country our goverment will only pay subsidies for "family, friends or neighbors" or licensed child care to care for our children. I believe if we paid parents many more parents would choose to stay home.

Caring for children under three in large groups is still a new experiment (the last 20 -25 years) that we have taken on as a society and although I've seen it done well, it's a little scary to me. We may just now be seeing the effects of raising children from infancy in out of home care.