ABSTRACT
A recent survey in two districts of Liverpool suggested that nearly a third of the total sample of 208 family units was 'in poverty'. The main cause of poverty—income inadequate to need—must not be lost sight of in a mass of peripheral benefits. The main need is still for adequate wages and higher family allowances … people may have the resources with which to benefit from the opportunities open to them in society—otherwise the vicious circle of poverty breeding poverty continues, with welfare benefits only alleviating rather than curing. Each of these aspects of inequality in environment and in the standard of adult care for children is serious. The importance of teachers' attitudes is emphasized by one of the findings in a survey by Goodacre, which reported that in a group of infant schools the 'teachers tended to think of pupils from lower working class areas not only as socially homogeneous groups but also as being intellectually homogeneous'.
