Good Day Care

Publisher:  DEC Films, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1978
Resource Type:  Film/Video
Cx Number:  CX772

Abstract: 
Good day care can be a valuable growing experience for children. Yet nine out of ten Canadian children whose parents work away from home don't have access to supervised day care.
This film shows some of the benefits of good day care and suggests some of the reasons, historical and contemporary, why day care is at the bottom of the educatinal heap. Footage from three Toronto centres ( Friends', St. Peter's and Regal Road) illustrates different approaches to day care, how available space is used and relationships with the community. The positive picture these day care present contrasts sharply with evidence given in the film's central section on the history of day care in Canada and the present situation of working parents. Finally,parents involved in the cooperative administration of Regal Road Day Care suggest how active organization by parents is necessary to change the present situation of inadequate and poorly financed day care in this country.
T o quote one of the film's producers, Barbara Martineau- " I started out to make a home movie about Friends' Day Care, where my son had been for three years.Many people I know don't think day care can be good for children, so I wanted to show a good centre from a child's point of view. That's what the first section of the film does. But very early on in making the film I discovered that the general situation of day care in Canada is appalling--I realized how lucky we'd been, and what strong measures are needed to provide better care for all our children. That's what the rest of the film is about-- all our children, and all of us. After all, children are our future."