Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Budget for daycare

We know that the first few years of a child's life are the most formative. It is during this period that a child learns about their family history and how to not only appreciate but practice their unique cultural diversity. Where both parents are working this responsibility is often delegated to the grandparents- a job which they are most willing and able to fulfill- after all each grandparent does contribute 25% to the genetic pool of their grandchildren.
Although some Canadians may look at the recent budgeting by the federal government of billions for universal day care as a political tactic to buy votes, others may view it as another form of cultural genocide not unlike I might add that experienced by the aboriginals with the boarding schools. The only difference is that here the government would be targeting a younger population group - the preschooler.
With the ethnic diversity of the Canadian population it would be virtually impossible for a "teacher " to address all the cultural needs of a group of children from different ethnic backgrounds unless of course each supervisor received the diverse training or you recruited several supervisors for each group. Then of course there is the problem of physical abuse. In some of our existing private and public daycare centers, hidden cameras have already been placed to monitor the alleged physical violence of the supervisors.
I am no politician but would it not be more practical- indeed more humane and probably more cost effective- for governments to reduce the tax burden for working parents so that both are not required to work to balance their budgets and would be available to fulfil one of their obligations of parenthood?

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