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EXCERPTS
I am the "poor, deprived" mother Margaret Wente used to introduce her column on child care (It's Mostly Middle-Class Convenience -- April 6). As a gainfully employed working mother, I would like to clearly state, in direct contrast to Ms. Wente's suggestion, that I in no way conceive of myself as a victim and never asked for help or sympathy….
My husband and I agreed to participate in the Toronto Star article precisely because we appreciate the child-care opportunities available to us. Our point was to say that access to high-quality child care for families who want or need it should not be limited by level of education, marital status, type of employment, income, or place of residence.
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- Pamela Robinson
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Margaret Wente would have us believe that "poor, deprived" families don't use "public daycare" -- only the middle and upper-middle classes use it.
Ms. Wente should have read the Statistics Canada study that came out on Wednesday. It shows that families at the lowest income levels are much more likely to use regulated child care (42 per cent) than families at any other income level. Ms. Wente would also have discovered that the use of daycare by low-income families has grown the most over the eight-year period covered by the study.
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I agree with Ms. Wente that facts are often distorted in the "ideological" child-care debate. Where we appear to differ is that I expect Ms. Wente to combat this distortion, rather than to contribute to it.
- Gordon Cleveland