I remember about 25 years ago going to a teaching session given by the doctor on an adoption panel - he said that his preference for adoptive parents was always those who were less educated themselves and more "working class". At the time I remember arguing with him about his very black and white thinking - he explained that his reasoning was that it was important for adoptive parents not to burden their children with their own experiences and expectations and he found middle class parents were very bad at doing that
I cannot comment on his experiences but I do see a lot of disappointment amongst some professionals who adopt and who expect their children to be certain things that they are not
I would have argued with the doctor about his thinking too. I am wondering if it is this sort of thinking which has been picked up on by the 2018 Independent Enquiry as being problematic, as it is not based on research. Being a "professional" does not equate with his criticisms – it was the individual professionals he had come across he was criticising and probably their training and expectations which were at fault - professionals as a whole are likely to have many skills which would be helpful, such as resilience and determination, the ability to absorb new information. Working class does not equal not professional or educated and it didn't 25 years ago either - my (now Russell Grant) university even back then was awash with students from working class/lower middle class families, mostly from grammar schools, who nearly all went on to become professionals. I think having a degree would help. As I said upthread I think the most important qualities needed being willing and able to undertake the hard work to help a child recover from trauma and be able to give love even when not always receiving it back in the way they want until the child has healed. Getting the right information to enable them to do this better signposted would be helpful.
In relation to the professionals who were disappointed, the sort of stimulation and interaction a child gets is going to have a huge impact on how well they do at school and other activities. It is very likely that the children involved were not getting the right help and I think it would be better to focus on increasing understanding how this can be done would be better than lowering expectations. Having high expectations of every child is important, including adoptees. A child who is not fulfilling their potential is not going to be happy and fulfilled and this just continues the circle of problems.
In relation to breakdowns, whether we are talking about 50 percent or 5 percent or 95 percent, a positive is that there are success stories, and analysing what made them success stories is helpful and I think we need to get better at doing this.