The Good-bye Window: A Year in the Life of a Day-care Center

On March 9, 2004, the teachers and staff of Red Caboose Day Care in Madison, Wisconsin, were faced with the ultimate test-and passed with flying colors. That morning an armed man forced his way into Red Caboose, slashed a teacher, herded children and staff into the Bumblebee Room, and threatened to kill the center's director. Some staffers quietly evacuated as many children as possible, while others surrounded the children, helping them stay calm and protecting them from harm and from seeing the final violent denouement. If you still need convincing that high-quality child care makes a difference, read this book, which is a year in the life of Red Caboose. Then imagine what might have happened if the teachers were young, new, and inexperienced, if turnover was so constant that staff never got to bond and work together as a team. Imagine, in other words, what might have happened in most child-care settings in America. Book jacket.