Far too many parents--as I was--are entirely dependent on the childminding main purpose of schooling now that almost all of us must be two-earner households. For elementary school I had my kid in a "prestigious" but academically mostly useless private school that provided aftercare too, stretching close to 6:30 p.m. From kindergarten he had an adult schedule, really, between drop-off and pick-up. If I could have afforded to stay home I would have; I did for middle school onward (for complicated reasons) and the financial sacrifice (and ensuing destruction of my marriage) were worth it to be there for my kid (yes, even the big ones need you to be not exhausted or already in bed when they're ready to talk about their lives). Women don't need childcare as much as they need a system that ensures they have social security benefits for retirement if they choose to stay home and raise their children so they don't end up dependent on the vicissitudes of marriage to keep them from starvation in their golden years.
And just to clarify--it wasn't to pay the tuition that I had to work. I'd have needed to do that anyway and our zoned public school was so over-subscribed I don't know where he'd have ended up.
"Dumbing Us Down" is perhaps his best known. Basic philosophy that guided us 1980s homeschooling rebels.
Far too many parents--as I was--are entirely dependent on the childminding main purpose of schooling now that almost all of us must be two-earner households. For elementary school I had my kid in a "prestigious" but academically mostly useless private school that provided aftercare too, stretching close to 6:30 p.m. From kindergarten he had an adult schedule, really, between drop-off and pick-up. If I could have afforded to stay home I would have; I did for middle school onward (for complicated reasons) and the financial sacrifice (and ensuing destruction of my marriage) were worth it to be there for my kid (yes, even the big ones need you to be not exhausted or already in bed when they're ready to talk about their lives). Women don't need childcare as much as they need a system that ensures they have social security benefits for retirement if they choose to stay home and raise their children so they don't end up dependent on the vicissitudes of marriage to keep them from starvation in their golden years.
And just to clarify--it wasn't to pay the tuition that I had to work. I'd have needed to do that anyway and our zoned public school was so over-subscribed I don't know where he'd have ended up.