ABSTRACT
The home may indeed well have a greater influence than the school on what is crucial in all children, motivation to learn. The home has been the prime concern of the educational sociologists. In 1902, 1918 and 1944 the mood was for reform and an Education Act was passed, almost with acclamation, at a time when it had so recently been demonstrated in war that the people from the back-streets had more talent than many of their superiors had previously imagined. Poverty may not be quite as much of a barrier as it used to be; yet others remain. The extent of the handicap which still besets working-class children has been emphasized by two recent reports, the Douglas Report and the Robbins Report. In place of the co-operation of the street, the school encourages competitiveness by all its marks and stars and exams.
