While it has been, and currently is, the practice of early childhood educators to evaluate educational programs in terms of their impact on children's development, enhancing children's knowledge may be as important as enhancing development; it is possible, in fact, that the enhancement of knowledge could be a better goal for early childhood education. Evidence of the long term effects of early childhood programs supports the view that developmental theory is a resource to early childhood curricula, not a source, since indices of developmental impact (IQ gains) fade by about third grade, while impact on school achievement continues through high school. Of course, knowledge of child development can help teachers understand what young children are capable of knowing; how children come to know what they know at a particular developmental stage; and how they validate their knowledge. Curriculum content, however, is derived not only from knowledge of what children are capable of knowing at a particular level, but also from what members of a culture consider important for children to know. Examples of educational practices in the kindergartens of China and Jewish kindergartens in the United States illustrate this point of view. Concluding remarks discuss D. Elkind's recently expressed views on the issues of what to teach young children and how curriculum content should be taught and argue that more efforts are needed to make the content of America's early childhood programs explicit. (RH)