Parents who do not care

[Wehttam]

DP is a teacher in a low achieving state school and is always mentioning how so many pupils have no idea of the real world they are about to enter. They have no concept how important education is for them and how their work during their time at school impacts life afterwards. Many have parents who do not care about their school work, behaviour or goals, these kids are literally left to their own devices often repeating the same mistakes their parents made, leaving school with no prospects.

How can schools inspire the younger generations to want to better themselves, that focuses their attention to being good adults? The stories I hear about neglect, abuse, disruptive parenting and more literally makes my head spin. How can a child be inspired when their parents simply do not care?

Read Educated by Tara Westover. That may explain how a child can be inspired when their parents simply don't care.

The problem is, schools (and teachers) cannot fulfil all the roles in children’s lives. While a great teacher can be inspiring, they cannot fix a bad home life.

There was a thread a while back about the Michaela school. I understand that this is mega strict (to the point of being controversial) but has just got great GCSEs in a relatively poor area. Perhaps by being so strict, it allows the teachers to get on with teaching (which is what children need).

Expose the kids to people with interesting jobs and careers, get them to come and give talks at school. Show the kids what is possible for them to achieve, many of them won't have a clue.

Include some high flyers and also include people whose services we all need who run their own businesses like mechanics, plumbers, hairdressers and emphasize in their talks the joy of being their own boss, they are in charge and are responsible for their business' success or failure.

Get all the people who give the talks to pitch it at the kids, how doing maths and English and whichever relevant subjects for the speaker seemed like a waste of time at school but how learning those subjects has helped them so much to build their businesses.

Have a lunchtime or afterschool club about living independently, cover subjects like wages, explain deductions, explain how rent and mortgages work.
Get them to manage their fictional income, show them the outgoings they'll have and how to manage their finances. How to budget. How to save.
Show them how to prepare simple nutritious meals so they don't rely on junkfood.
Show them there's a huge world of opportunities out there and give them the incentive and the tools to access them.
Raise their awareness of the possibilities they could have in the future and show them how to achieve that step by step.

When I was at school, a lot of the lessons didn't appear to apply to anything I'd be likely to do in real life, providing a link so they can see the usefulness of the lessons they are learning now may be a good start.

So much common sense BlankTimes. No one will listen, naturally, because gender education is much more important when schools score points.