Preschools and Daycare Centers - Essay Sample

Introduction

According to (Crystal, 2014), there is a difference between preschools and daycare centers between the three countries. Daycare was initiated in the late nineteenth century as a provision for working-class mothers who did not have time to take care of their children since they were busy looking for money. Preschools, on the other hand, were initiated as to provide a chance of education to those working class parents that had their kids in upper-class. The parents only got to stay with their children for just half a day. These changes in the reduced interaction between the parents and their children have necessitated an increase in divorces; there has been an increase in the number of single mothers and most parents having two jobs to attend to which has been brought about by the harsh economy.

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According to (Crystal, 2014), the growing adoption of both daycare and preschool underwrites to the tendencies of introducing the child at a young age to formal education and has further resulted to the development of official organization outside the family. This is contrary to what happened some few generations ago where children stayed home with their parents, and their parents were tasked with doing household chores. A multicultural analysis of preschools in China, Japan and the United States discloses some common goals which are similar in all the three countries as well as their differences.

It was discovered that in the three countries children became more independent and self-reliant, this meant that the children were able to cloth themselves, feed and control their behaviors better than those who lived few generations ago. They also agreed that by them going to school this would help them avoid the pampering they were receiving at home - however there cultural differences in the meaning of the term "spoiling". China had a government policy which required parents to have one child to limit population growth. In Japan, the scholars believed that the selfishness and unruliness of a spoiled child result from not only their overindulgence but also from insufficient love and attention at home. The Americans think the unruliness of spoilt child results from parents is becoming too busy to be discipline their children properly and show concern and love to them. Some cultural differences are worth noting like the Japanese emphasize fairness and do not show any differences among the preschool and daycare children since their main aim is to develop a sense of collective participation in formal education. Preschools in China were more controlled than those in Japan. All the children do a similar thing at the same time including going to the bathroom at the same time.

References

Crystal, D. S., Chen, C., Fuligni, A. J., Stevenson, H. W., Hsu, C. C., Ko, H. J., ... & Kimura, S. (2014). Psychological maladjustment and academic achievement: A crosscultural study of Japanese, Chinese, and American high school students. Child development, 65(3), 738-753.