The eight essays in this volume were written in response to a request for critical comments on early childhood policies and on particularly controversial subjects. The essays cover eight topics: (1) day care problems, including short- and long-term effects on children of different ages, policy questions, developmental issues, and evaluation criteria; (2) education and health care integration, focusing upon maternal and child health care, preschool education, and children with special needs; (3) women, children, and child care centers in the Netherlands, focusing upon parent relationships with child care centers and on government legislation regarding child care centers; (4) social policy and child development, specifically describing the concept of ecology in human development; (5) models of social management of children's services, with critical appraisal of integrated projects in France; (6) coordination of services to preschoolers, focusing upon both resource needs and on implementation of practices based upon theory; (7) parent education, presenting course offerings, methods for implementing courses, and research about course effects; (8) training professionals and parents, with descriptions of projects in several countries, use of media, in-service training styles, and some British parents' protests about parent education. (DB)