[suchire]

Honestly, it doesn’t really work without the parents. The issue is that the biggest problems with schooling discrepancies are poverty. Kids can’t eat, need to take care of siblings or their own kids or go work two jobs, have no homes, don’t get medical care, have no internet, etc.

There is no way to really fix those problems by changing the school system. You can have bandaids, like providing free food at school, but that’s fixing the problem at the wrong level.

[LeanderK]

are there no all-day schools in the US? My girlfriend went to one because of her mother being on her own and having to work and it was pretty involved compared to my "normal" school. They handled school, sports and homework. Your kid should come home with only very, very few things to do. It's a trend in germany to have it as an option at more and more schools but they have to build the infrastructure first (may schools in german didn't have a canteen) so it's taking a bit. The schools where I grew up didn't have one but now both "advanced" schools have all day school options.

I think every school should have the possibility to put your kid in an all-day school, I can't imagine the strain on single parents or parents where both have to work a lot otherwise.

Of course it's not possible to eliminate parents as an important factor of the success of your kid, but you can help.

[vietthan]

This sounds like halfway to boarding school.

[LeanderK]

A little bit, but I am not sure whether it is really comparable. It's a relatively new trend here in germany (started 2002). Translating a recent article: "According to this, in 2007 only 16.2 percent of children attended an all-day school. In 2017, the figure was more than twice as high, at 42 per cent."

As I understood it (not a parent and it was not available when I was at school): You have all-day classes and "normal" classes at school. The kids in all-day classes stay together during the day and the kids in the other class go home, it is not an optional add-on. My niece is attending all-day school with a musical focus and likes it very much. All day classes differ between schools and classes, with school on 3-5 afternoons until 4 pm. Supervision is given for homework and studying for exams.

[testfoobar]

Agreed. Love, shelter, food and support. Schools have kids 6hrs a day. Learning happens 24/7. There is no way schools can compensate for a bad home life. Progressive school reformers are blindingly naive to the impact that the other 18hrs of a child's day has to their performance at school.

[staunton]

> There is no way schools can compensate for a bad home life

There is a difference between "parents always matter to a child's education" and "let's stop trying to improve schools cause what's the point". The latter is basically the same as "schools are pointless, why have them in the first place?". If you believe that, look at some countries that don't have schools...