Infant Daycare


Burton L. White

The people that I know who have studied the development of children over the years number in the hundreds because I've been around for a long time. I don't know two of them that applaud the notion of a transfer of the primary responsibility of child rearing over to any substitute. Most of the people I know do not like it. Very few of the people I know are willing to speak out in public the way I do. There's only two, there's Selma Fraiberg, and myself. You know her book, Every Child's Birthright which is a polemic about this thing. The people who create substitute care facilities are not doing it primarily because they're looking for better ways of raising babies. They're doing it for legitimate needs or perceived needs of adults. This is not an institution that's been designed because parents can't raise babies well enough, in most cases. Now my concern as somebody who has studied children over the years, is singular. I want to introduce into all discussions, policy discussions and family decisions, the factor of the likely impact on the child. I see that as my professional responsibility and I'm going to keep saying it, whether it aggravates guilt feelings, or whether it's misused or not...


Dr. White founded the Harvard Preschool Project and served as its director for the thirteen years of its existence. He was also the first director of the Brookline Early Education Project and the Senior Consultant to Missouri's New Parents as Teachers project. He has taught at Harvard University, Brandeis University and Tufts University. He is author of The First Three Years of Life, Educating the Infant and Toddler as well as four major textbooks and numerous scholarly articles. He was also host of a television series, The First Three Years.