How Good Child Care Helps Mothers, and the Men They Raise
優質托兒照顧 造福母子兩代
By Claire Cain Miller

As many American parents know, hiring care for young children during the workday is punishingly expensive, costing the typical family about a third of its income.
許多美國父母都知道，在上班日請人照顧幼兒的費用高得要命，得花掉一般家庭三分之一的收入。

Helping parents pay for that care would be expensive for society, too. Yet recent studies show that of any policy aimed to help struggling families, aid for high-quality care has the biggest economic payoff for parents and their children – and even their grandchildren. It has the biggest positive effect on women’s employment and pay. It’s especially helpful for low-income families, because it can propel generations of children toward increased earnings, better jobs, improved health, more education and decreased criminal activity as adults.
幫助父母支付托兒費也需花費很高的社會成本。不過，最近的一些研究顯示，在幫助經濟困難家庭的所有政策中，資助高品質托兒照顧，對父母和他們的子女，甚至孫子輩，都能獲得最大的經濟回報。對婦女就業和受薪有最大的正面效益。這對低薪家庭幫助尤其大，因為可以促使世世代代的兒童成年後邁向更高的薪水、更好的工作、更健康的身體、更高的教育程度和較少的犯罪活動。

Affordable care for children under 5, long a goal of Democrats, is now being championed by Ivanka Trump.
5歲以下兒童的可負擔托兒照顧，是民主黨長期以來的目標，現在由伊凡卡．川普領軍推動。

The Department of Health and Human Services says child care should cost 7 percent of a family’s income at most – but 42 percent of families who buy care for young children spend considerably more than that, according to census data analyzed by Beth Mattingly at the University of New Hampshire. A report by New America and Care.com put the average cost of child care in the United States at $16,514 a year.
美國衛生暨人類服務部表示，托兒照顧頂多只應花掉一個家庭收入的7%，但根據新罕布夏大學的貝絲．麥亭利對人口普查資料的分析，花錢請人照顧幼兒的家庭有42%花費遠高過這個比率。「新美國與照顧網站」的一份報告估計，在美國請人照顧兒童的平均花費為每年1萬6514美元。

It’s children with parents who can least afford high-quality care who benefit most from it, research has found. That is because affluent children have better alternatives. For well-off children, some studies have linked day care, especially low-quality care early in life, to achievement and behavior problems.
研究發現，父母最無力負擔高品質托兒照顧的孩子受益最大。這是因為富裕家庭的兒童有更好的其他選擇。針對富家子弟，一些研究認為托兒照顧，特別是年幼時的低品質照顧，與長大後的成就和行為問題有關聯。

A powerful new study – which demonstrated long-term results by following children from birth until age 35 – found that high-quality care during the earliest years can influence whether both mothers and children born into disadvantage lead more successful lives. The study was led by James J. Heckman, a Nobel laureate economist at the University of Chicago.
有項強有力的新研究藉由追蹤兒童出生到35歲的過程以展現長期結果，發現最年幼幾年的高品質照顧，對母親與生在弱勢家庭的孩子能否邁向成功人生，有一定影響力。這項研究由芝加哥大學獲諾貝爾獎的經濟學家詹姆士．赫克曼帶領。

“They’re engaged more in the workforce, they’re now active participants of society, they’re more educated, they have higher skills,” Heckman said. “So what we’ve done is promoted mobility across generations.”
赫克曼說：「他們更投入勞動，他們現在是活躍的社會參與者，他們的教育程度更高，他們有更好的技能。因此，我們所做的是促進跨世代的流動性。」

The study analyzed two well-known experimental programs in North Carolina, which offered free, full-time care to low-income children age 8 weeks to 5 years, most of whom were black and lived with a single mother. The children in the control group were at home or in lower-quality programs.
這項研究分析北卡羅來納州兩項著名的實驗計畫，此二計畫對8周到5歲的低收入家庭兒童提供免費、全天照顧，主要是與單親媽媽同住的黑人小孩。對照組的兒童在家或接受較低品質的托兒計畫。

The mothers of those in the experimental program earned more when the children were in preschool, and the difference was still there two decades later.
實驗計畫兒童的母親在孩子上幼稚園時已能賺得更多收入，20年後這差距依然存在。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/20/upshot/how-child-care-enriches-mothers-and-especially-the-sons-they-raise.html

2017-06-18．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 田思怡

說文解字看新聞 田思怡

本文的主題是優質托兒照顧能讓弱勢家庭的母親賺更多錢，影響所及，她的子女，甚至孫子長大後都更成功。

本文關鍵字child care指的是請人照顧小孩，可能請保姆（a babysitter）或送到托兒所（a day-care center）。

在美國請人照顧小孩很花錢，本文提到提供家計有困難的家庭（struggling families）或低收入家庭（low-income families）優質托兒照顧實驗計畫（experimental programs of high-quality child care）。

實驗結果發現母親和生在弱勢家庭的孩子都能過較成功的生活（Both mothers and children born into disadvantage lead more successful lives.）。句中的lead是度過的意思，例如lead a quiet life（過著寧靜的生活）。

文中提到川普的女兒伊凡卡擁護可負擔托兒照顧（champions affordable child care），她向國會遊說，希望國會改革稅制時，能加入托兒照顧費用可扣抵稅額（a deduction for child care expenses），但這項福利將在10年花掉聯邦政府5000億美元，恐怕不會得到國會支持。

Welcome to the World’s Coolest Kindergarten
歡迎來到世界上最酷的幼兒園
By Andrew Keh

HAMBURG, Germany – It was late Tuesday afternoon at the Pestalozzi Foundation kindergarten, and a few dozen children and their parents were hanging around past the normal pickup hour.
星期二向晚時分，德國漢堡市裴斯泰洛齊基金會幼兒園接孩子的正常時間已過，卻有幾十個兒童和家長徘徊不去。

There was no rush to get home, really. They were enjoying the view from the kindergarten’s rear veranda: the inside of Millerntor-Stadion, the 29,546-seat stadium that is home to FC St. Pauli, as it hurriedly filled up for a midweek soccer game.
他們真的不急著回家，而是在幼兒園後走廊享受望出去的景觀：米勒門球場內部，這個體育場有2萬9546個座位，是聖保利足球俱樂部的主場，很快就坐滿了，大家準備觀看一場在一星期中段舉行的足球賽。

Staying after class has never been this fun.
放學後留校從來沒這麼好玩。

Since 2010, the Pestalozzi Foundation has operated from inside the stadium, offering families perks that are most likely unique in the world of early childhood education.
2010年起，裴斯泰洛齊基金會就在球場內經營幼兒園，讓幼兒家庭享受一些附帶的好處，而這些好處很可能在幼教世界中獨一無二。

The kindergarten borrows the stadium’s field, tunnels and roof for group activities. Players from the team come by to read to the children. Teachers use the arena’s main stand as a sort of giant break room. And on match days, parents clamor to reserve a spot to watch from the prime vantage point of the kindergarten’s deck, within shouting distance of the rowdy southern stands.
這家幼兒園跟球場借了運動場、地道和屋頂供團體活動之用。聖保利足球隊的球員會來朗讀給孩子聽。老師把球場主看台當作超大休息室來用。在比賽日，家長會大聲要求預留空間，才能在幼兒園外木造平台上最好的位置觀戰，平台離鬧哄哄的南看台很近。

Kindergarten in Germany is closer in concept to preschool in the United States, existing outside the formal school system as it serves children ages 3 to 6. The German word Kindertagesstatte, which is often shortened to Kita, denotes a day care center for children of any age. Since Pestalozzi accepts children 8 months to 6 years old, people referring to it use the words kindergarten and Kita interchangeably.
德國的幼兒園類似美國幼兒園，收3到6歲兒童，獨立於正式學校體系之外。德文Kindertagesstatte通常簡寫為Kita，是指各年齡兒童的日間托育中心。由於裴斯泰洛齊收的兒童介於8個月大到6歲之間，人們會交替地說裴斯泰洛齊是幼兒園或Kita。

The kindergarten was conceptualized eight years ago, when FC St. Pauli was renovating the stadium. There was space for a building in the southwest corner, between two large rebuilt stands. The decision to use it as a child care center made sense perhaps only in the unconventional world of the socially conscious club and its neighborhood.
這家幼兒園從8年前聖保利俱樂部整修球場時開始發想。球場西南角位在兩個重建的大看台間，有空間可蓋房子。把這個空間撥給幼兒園使用的決定，也許只對非傳統且深具社會責任感的聖保利俱樂部及其周邊鄰居有意義。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/24/sports/soccer/welcome-to-the-worlds-coolest-kindergarten.html

2017-06-18．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析 李京倫