Why History is Important in Childcare Barbara Kahan's article last month suggested that we should learn from the past. This echoes a letter to the Times a couple of years ago in which a retired Admiral castigated NATO for dropping the policy of convoying across the Atlantic in the event of conflict. He pointed out that the policy had been developed during the First World War because of the success of U-boats in picking off loan ships, and it had proved effective in the Second World War, despite the losses. It mirrors the flocking behaviour of birds in the face of predators. Apparently NATO had decided that this was old hat now, and the Admiral did not think much of their dismissive approach to history. In childcare, the problem is even greater as we are dealing with human behaviour rather than technological developments, and in each generation we seem to need to learn again the lessons which our ancestors learnt. Studying the history of childcare should be a must for professionals and people responsible for policy so that they can avoid the pitfalls which our predecessors - and we ourselves - have fallen into. If we don't base our plans on past learning, we risk failure. It is not just that we will waste time re-inventing the wheel. After all, the wheel was a brilliant technological advance. We are more likely to reinvent the sledge, and suffer a bumpy ride. If we base our plans just on our own thinking, the chances are that our proposals will be flawed. FGL

Cats, Cows and Children Barbara Kahan pointed out the care we take in looking after the welfare of animals, by comparison with children. Have you noticed that because of the (understandable) concern about BSE and CJD, every individual cow can now be traced from birth through to slaughter via computer records, but that the Government thinks that registering childcare workers would be too bureaucratic to be worth doing. Presumably the care of the country's children figures lower in their priorities than the sale of beef in Europe. If not, why can't they spend the modest sum needed to get a proper register going? MCW