It’s hard to know what people mean when we talk about “disadvantage”. Most people think of disadvantage as deprivation or poverty. It is definitely both of those things but there are many, many layers to disadvantage.
I’m thinking of the young people we work with at Foundation Futures and the multiple layers of disadvantage they face; the barriers they must climb and the problems they must overcome; just to do the things most people take for granted.
For example imagine the following;
You may be thrown out of home to make room for your mother’s new boyfriend. You may live in three different houses in a week because no one has room for you. You may have bleeding gums but have no idea about how to go about seeing a dentist. You may never have experienced eating in a restaurant and are surprised that you pay after you’ve eaten. You suffer from body odour as your family shower doesn’t work and the landlord won’t fix it. You don’t eat hot food because your family has a kettle but no oven. You make bad choices and are grateful for any relationship because you have no support or any idea of your worth. You don’t see the difference between swear words and normal language because that’s all your family have ever used. You may get an interview for a job but have no way of getting there and have nothing but trainers and jogging trousers to wear.
Unfortunately poverty proofing schools can only solve part of the disadvantage problem. Education is the safety net, the level playing field, the means of escape. The trouble is that unfortunately educational success is not measured by how every child builds their confidence. Schools and educational success are measured by GCSE results. Just getting to school, staying in school and feeling safe in school is progress and success for some of our most vulnerable young people.
Learning to address anxiety, manage behaviour, fear and anger are some of the lessons which must be learnt before these young people can even be ready to learn academically. They are more than capable if time and patience can be spent on them. If we don’t address these disadvantages we only store up problems for later years by way of offending and early, unplanned pregnancy.
“Closing the gap” can’t be achieved until young people are ready to learn. The disadvantages and barriers they face must be addressed first. We believe that not every child can be treated as a sausage in a GCSE sausage machine. Just as there are many levels of disadvantage, there are many levels of success. There are many different kinds of intelligence; academic intelligence is only one. Sadly it’s the only one the current education system recongises.