A Child Development Center (CDC) is said to rest on five basic tenets--(1) a team approach, (2) individual and small group methods, (3) emphasis on a total developmental setting, (4) the great significance of the early years of childhood, and (5) the concept of continuity in experience and development. A CDC, and especially one serving the disadvantaged, must therefore offer a comprehensive, interrelated program of health and social services, family involvement and education, nutrition, early childhood education, and assessment and evaluation. An inexperienced or a secondary school teacher might be a better choice for a CDC because the experienced elementary level teacher may be more resistant to the needed innovations and change. An early childhood classroom is different from other types because it is more like a laboratory which encourages guided self-learning and, with a lower adult-child ratio, provides more opportunities for greater adult support. (NH)