Early Childhood Care and Education International Perspectives ‐ Edited by Edward Melhuish and Konstantinos Petrogiannis

Abstract

Early Childhood Care and Education International Perspectives. Edward Melhuish and Konstantinos Petrogiannis (Eds.). London and New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group. 2006. 182 pp. ISBN 0415383684. $135.00 (cloth). ISBN 0415383692. $44.95 (paper). Remember Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn? He grew up a century ago neither family nor government responsible for his care and development. And that was the general attitude of society at the time. Today, as Edward Melhuish and Konstantinos Petrogiannis make clear from their edited collection of essays, this is an almost impossible contemporary thought. We accept, as do the authors of this timely book, the loose connection between Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services and a nation's economic development. But the major focus of this collection is provide an international introduction policies and practices in a number of as diverse as India, China, the United States, Israel, and others. For this service alone the essays are a useful way help practioners expand their knowledge of similarities and differences that exist in the early care of children everywhere. Inevitably, however, we see the kind of invidious comparisons that unexpectedly appear when we weigh the relative progress of different nations. One such example shows when the authors write, with regard supply, quality and affordability of ECCE ... the U.S. is far behind a number of other industrialized countries (p. 2). Nor are the authors averse providing their own pejorative assessments of some government efforts. For instance, the assessment of Indian ECCE includes the observation that Indians fail to recognize the crucial role of early childhood care and education for positive child outcomes such as learning, school readiness, nutrition, and health (p. 144). The clear, though unstressed, consequences of such implied neglect cry out for renewed effort provide for the disadvantaged, here in the States and globally. Although the list of countryspecific essays is useful, there are some notable exceptions. For example, more attention could be devoted the needs of Hispanics in the United States, and some mention might have been made of the fact that today 70% of the world's poorest children reside in Africa But, on the whole, Melhuish and Petrogiannis have gathered together essays that prove the worldwide need for an increased governmental involvement in the education and care of children. …