Having worked in education for 30 years ,for what that is worth, I can say I have seen every intervention going as well as studied the improving research background to interventions – and the problem doesn’t just fundamentally reside in school , it resides in homes. Until we seriously address the problems with parenting and home life from the earliest age you can throw as much money as you like at schools and it might help a little ( though only with very careful choice and targeting ) but the results will still disappoint. Schools can not simply save us from our social problems, even if they can help in the right circumstances. I’ll add what I know is usually very unpopular on Reddit , that in my limited experience the difficulties kids arrive with are made worse by the pressure from some ‘well meaning’ advocates to ever lower expectations of things like behaviour and hard work – while as far as I’m aware those schools that have gone the other way and become ‘fascist, bullying’ institutions have actually improved poor pupils outcomes. In my experience it wasn’t money that made a difference within education as much as good and bad policy or management. Of course teachers mattered too but all I saw was ever better teaching and lessons which just wasn’t enough. But the fact is that until we don’t just talk about money but talk about the best and earliest use of money – the details of the correlation between poverty and parenting and address that , we won’t make a significant difference. Before anyone says so I’d also point out that simply screaming victim blaming doesn’t help in identifying solutions, I’m not suggesting moral fault I’m suggesting practical targeting based on understanding.
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Having worked in education for 30 years ,for what that is worth, I can say I have seen every intervention going as well as studied the improving research background to interventions – and the problem doesn’t just fundamentally reside in school , it resides in homes. Until we seriously address the problems with parenting and home life from the earliest age you can throw as much money as you like at schools and it might help a little ( though only with very careful choice and targeting ) but the results will still disappoint. Schools can not simply save us from our social problems, even if they can help in the right circumstances. I’ll add what I know is usually very unpopular on Reddit , that in my limited experience the difficulties kids arrive with are made worse by the pressure from some ‘well meaning’ advocates to ever lower expectations of things like behaviour and hard work – while as far as I’m aware those schools that have gone the other way and become ‘fascist, bullying’ institutions have actually improved poor pupils outcomes. In my experience it wasn’t money that made a difference within education as much as good and bad policy or management. Of course teachers mattered too but all I saw was ever better teaching and lessons which just wasn’t enough. But the fact is that until we don’t just talk about money but talk about the best and earliest use of money – the details of the correlation between poverty and parenting and address that , we won’t make a significant difference. Before anyone says so I’d also point out that simply screaming victim blaming doesn’t help in identifying solutions, I’m not suggesting moral fault I’m suggesting practical targeting based on understanding.