| This. Mother and family spent careers in early childhood education. - In order for learning to happen, kids have to be non-disruptive. - In order for kids to be non-disruptive, they have to have their basic needs met: safety, food, stability, etc. - In order for a kid's basic needs to be met, there has to be a source of income and time to care for them. Absent that chain of dependencies, young children are in no state to learn anything, and distract the kids around them. And every minute of every week spent papering over deficiencies there is one less minute devoted to learning. F.ex. in Title I schools, it's not uncommon to have families where the only book in the house might be one a child is sent home with. If teachers received tabula rasa children, results would be much more even. But they don't, which results in kids at bad schools being unable to focus, which means they don't learn basic material, which perpetuates income disparities later in life, which continues the cycle through lack of time and money. The military has many bad aspects, but a parent with a steady job, housing, and benefits is a solid foundation for childhood academic success. |
On a more nutty note, for the possible reforms I've heard of everything from public boarding schools so kid don't have to spend time in their bad home, to firing all teachers and paying children for testing well.