David F. agrees with Jacinda … respectfully … I significantly disagree with both.

David Farrer states:
“I would like to see 20 hours “free” from age three to become 35 hours free from age one. There is no other policy which would have such a beneficial long-term impact on child welfare, on education, on providing opportunities to disadvantaged families, to closing the gaps between Maori and European.”

I simply do not believe children 0 – 5 are made to thrive in full-time child-care. I believe that one of the causes of our declining education statistics/systems is that we have professionalised pre-school education and much reduced the emphasis on great parenting, reading to your kids, family activity, etc. A significant portion of the reason that we have a major childcare system is for the adults not the children.

A couple of years back I spoke a good friend who was an incredible professional rugby player on this topic. He and his two siblings are lawyers and I asked how they had succeeded so well. They are Samoan. He told me that his parents valued education highly and that, even though both parents had great careers – they made sure one was always home. My wife and I did the same. I cannot imagine how my kids would have done with 35 hours a week day-care but I can assure you it would not have been as well as they have done. And I sat on the couch and read to them for at least 30 mins every night. No TV/Playstation, etc, and limits of 30 mins screen time.

If some parents are opting into child-care and are getting 20 free hours … an equitable policy would be to pay 20 hours per week to parents who stay at home to look after their children (I would add a house and care check as happens for each international student in NZ).

I don’t believe what David/Jacinda are advocating would have the long term benefits they suggest.

If I had a dream policy to see implemented after the next election it would be:

• Massive education and support for pregnant women/partners re care for their child in-utero. Huge counter programme to counter FASD and other harms.
• Massive parents as first (and most important) teachers programme age 0 – 5. Including health, reading, numeracy, movement, music, languages. See Eagleman: The Brain

This documentary is a wee bit dated but if you want a simply superb example of GREAT parenting without money – this is it and it is deeply inspiring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QQBj2EucZk

Since the documentary was produced I have always shown it to the students and families of schools I have been involved with.

(I could not load it as a video as it has an age restriction through a couple of surgery shots).

Alwyn Poole

alwyn.poole@gmail.com