https://marco.org/2010/10/12/its-pretty-hard-to-teach-a-kid-who-has-been
It’s pretty hard to teach a kid who has been raised by the television, when he hasn’t eaten breakfast, when the family has been kicked out of their home, when he has to work a job to help feed the siblings, when the parents have just gotten divorced or lost both of their jobs, when no-one at home speaks English, or when their most alluring role models are dope dealers, pimps, or gangsta rappers. Imagine, then, trying to teach a room full of such trauma cases. […] If you want better schools, work for more stable incomes, families and neighborhoods.
— Robert Freeman (via AZspot), addressing the biggest problem our modern educational system faces: not bad teachers or bad schools, but the downward spiral of poverty and the decimation of the middle class.