EARLY EDUCATION, CHILDRENS LIVES, AND THE TRANSITION FROM HOME TO SCHOOL IN ITALY AND THE UNITED-STATES

Child care policies adopted in many countries in Western Europe in the late 1960s and early 1970s have generally evolved as part of broad ba sed civic communities in which the federal, regional and local governm ents, voluntary organizations, and families work together to support c hildren and families. In this paper I focus on child care and early ed ucation in Italy as a case study in this trend. I first examine how in itial legislation calling for primarily custodial care of preschool ch ildren developed into a highly progressive early education system in w hich the goal is to provide a bridge for children's transition from th e family to the elementary school and Italian community life more gene rally. I then go on to report on my ethnographic work in an Italian sc uola materna to capture how early child care and education policies di rectly affect the lives of Italian children. The paper concludes with brief speculation regarding how U.S. policies regarding child care and early education would benefit from the adoption of some elements of t he Italian model.