Tim Worstall

Formal Childcare

This is an interesting contention:

Meanwhile previous academic studies, notably by Bristol University,
have suggested babies left with their grandparents become slower
learners at school. The theory is that the grandparent may be a
reluctant "stand-in", trapped in a caring squeeze where they struggle
to look after a very young child as well as an elderly spouse. They
also do not have the training that nursery assistants have.

So, a grandparent, someone who by definition has already raised a child, is less qualified than a nursery assistant who has had lots of training. Well, maybe, although the claim that 20 years experience is beaten by a year on a day release scheme and a dollop of half baked sociology seems a little odd, to say the least.

Also, maybe not:

Nursery Assistant

Qualifications are not always required.

In

7 responses

  1. Bob B Avatar
    Bob B

    It was Michael Lipton, as I recall, who characterised one species of social research as taking data down to the basement in order to beat the facts out of them. The project you mention would seem to qualify.

    Reply
  2. Martin Avatar
    Martin

    Er, Tim…
    “So, a grandparent, someone who by definition has already raised a child”
    Not quite. Someone who has sired a child, yes; raised, no.
    “Well, maybe, although the claim that 20 years experience is beaten by a year on a day release scheme and a dollop of half baked sociology seems a little odd, to say the least.”
    Can’t speak for the rest of ’em, but the missus, who is no natural academic, put her heart, soul and two years of my life into her HNC in Nursery Nursing & Childcare; so ’nuff respect.

    Reply
  3. Katherine Avatar
    Katherine

    So, if you are denying the conclusion of the study, Tim, do you have an alternative theory, being an academic with expertise in this area? Oh hang on a sec…

    Reply
  4. embutler Avatar
    embutler

    I would imagine that socialization has a lot more going for it as the interaction is going to jump start intelligent behaviour as you interact with your peers..

    Reply
  5. Umbongo Avatar
    Umbongo

    If I were of a more sceptical frame of mind, I would say that any research carried out under the imprimature of the Equal Opportunities Commission by the Institute of Education (two of the most intellectually moribund organisations in the UK – and there’s a lot of competition) which said that institutionalising children from the age of 10 months is preferable to their being at home with their mothers or grandparents should be viewed with profound disbelief. I suspect that if the “conclusions” had gone the other way this research would not have seen the light of day.

    Reply
  6. HJHJ Avatar
    HJHJ

    I am no great fan of insitutional childcare. However, this doesn’t mean that I think Tim’s comments are fair or accurate.
    Yes, there is plenty of evidence that grandparents often don’t make very good childcarers. Quite simply, many feel ‘put-upon’ to provide childcare for their grandchildren and are not terribly motivated. This is not to say that grandparents cannot be very good childcarers, just that those that are effectively forced into it by the need for families to work to pay taxes and pay for material goods often don’t do a very good job. It is also the case that it is typically worst paid and educated that use grandparents because they can’t afford paid childcare.
    The article Tim refers to uses the term ‘nursery assistants’ incorrectly to describe nursery staff in general . Nursery assistants may not have qualifications (although they are nearly always obliged to work towards them) but they must always be closely supervised by qualified nursery nurses – by law. In a typical nursery, unqualified assistants will be in a small minority.
    My wife and I never even considered using external childcare for our child, so I am not biased in favour of paid-for childcare and I think it’s crazy that the government is subsidising schemes such as Sure Start which are biased in favour of working, as opposed to stay-at-home, parents. However, childcare in the right environment, by well qualified and experienced staff (and I include nannies and childminders) can be at least equal to and sometimes better to that of parents and grandparents. My wife trained for 3 years (she’s a Norland Nurse) to gain her childcare qualifications and, as she points out, you need no qualifications, experience or even a sanity check to be a parent. Occasionally she has had to supervise parent and grandparent helpers and is amazed by how utterly inept some of them are.
    So characterising nursery staff as having ” a year on a day release scheme and a dollop of half baked sociology” is just plain stupid. Many are very well qualified (“half baked sociology”?) and more experienced than parents.
    Tim adds: I used the term “nursery assistant” as that is the term used in the article. I’d also point out that my step-daughter has trained as a nursery nurse (note, not assistant) and yes, there is a large amount of half backed sociology in it.

    Reply
  7. HJHJ Avatar
    HJHJ

    The point, Tim, is that the article used the wrong term to describe nursery staff. You then used this to imply that children in nurseries are looked after by untrained or hardly trained nursery assistants, which is not true.
    All I can say about your step daughter is that she should have chosen a better educational institution if her course was full of ‘half-baked sociology’. This most certainly wasn’t my wife’s experience at Norland -it was a tough and rigorous course.

    Reply

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