Education is the foundation of today's society. Without a proper education there would not be doctors and lawyers, there would not be new technology sprouting up all of the time, and there would not be the same world that people have come to know. This "proper education" does not just include a decent teacher, but it includes the child's ability and drive to learn and parents or guardians that support the child throughout their education. Instances such as a poor home life can very easily make a negative impact on a child's education. Often times children catch the majority of the blame for their low academic success without looking at what the child may be going home to. Divorce and poverty are two home life situations that have become a normalcy in society and fairly often people overlook the issues that could arise from them; the negative impact on a child's education being one of those issues. There are many different ways in which poverty and divorce can become an issue for the child, such as lack of quality time and poor health of the child. Each of these, along with many more, are reasons as to why children should not always be to blame for why they are not meeting the certain academic standards. It is the lack of consideration of divorce and socioeconomic effects on children by parents and teachers that has created blame on children for low academic success for circumstances out of their control.

When people think about low academic success in a child's education the fingers are often pointed at the child and in some cases the teacher, but not often enough are the fingers pointed at the parents of the child and the home life they go home to. Before looking at why a child's home life could be the reason for their low test grades it is important to know that there has been research done on why teachers should catch the blame. One study that was done not too long ago blamed teachers because they hold bias towards their students. This bias derives from all sorts of factors such as race, gender, and even the children's academic success in their class. Teachers often want to help the students that have shown academic success in their class and see the other children almost like lost causes (Thompson, Warren, Carter). 

The main issue that can be seen with this study is that all people hold bias in some sort of way. Of course there can be more bias in one person than the other, but it is completely natural for a human to be biased in some way shape or form. So, trying to blame teachers for a child's academic failure based off of this is not necessarily the fairest thing to do. Also, there are a lot of factors that as a teacher they cannot control. Things such as poverty and parent divorce of the child are two big things in a child's life that the teacher cannot take away for the child or fix. The teacher is however responsible for teaching the child no matter what kind of situation they may be coming from. Without realizing this it would be easy to blame the teacher for a student's failure. 

There are many different circumstances in which a child can be found in at home around the U.S.; socioeconomic status and divorce being two of them. These two family situations are not proven to be the most influential on children's academics, but they are two very common family realities to many Americans. In fact, fifteen percent of all Americans were at the poverty level in 2014 and twenty-two percent of the child population was at the poverty level as well ("Hunger and Poverty"). When looking at divorce rates, forty to fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce ("Marriage and Divorce"). It is within these numbers that should raise concern amongst Americans, while instead it has become the new normal. Because of this normalcy, children in these situations are overlooked. People involved no longer check to see that the child is okay; it is assumed.

The effects of divorce and poverty from a child's home life are not always seen from the outside, which makes it difficult for the child's teachers and parents to see that something is going on. Children are not just growing physically as they get older but they are growing socially, emotionally, spiritually, and morally as well. Each of these in which are molded by the surroundings that the child is placed upon. Children often look at their parents for guidance, and in circumstances such as these the parents may not be as active with the child as the child needs, or they could act in a way in which they did not act before life came into effect. Sudden changes in the child's life could ultimately cause the child to act and think differently than the child did before, but as previously stated this is not always an outward change in the child's appearance. The child's cry for help can often be hidden in their school assignments, the way they socialize with their peers, and their interest in basically everything they're involved in. These are things that could be found before their home life begins to affect the way the child performs in school, or at least before it makes a lasting mark on the child's future education. In the long run it is good to understand where the root of these problems may come from and how each can affect the child. 

Poverty is a factor that effects millions worldwide and it happens just as much right in our own neighborhoods as it does everywhere else. Families everywhere, whether intentional or not, are living off of food stamps, their families, and their friends trying to make it by. A harsh reality with this is that many children who grow up in this financial situation often remain in this socioeconomic status for the rest of their lives. This is not because the children do not have the potential to succeed, but they are not given the opportunity to. It is within their education that they are able to set themselves apart from where their parents are, but they have to take it seriously in order to increase their chances. 

Dylan Matthews from Washington Post looked at the statistics of children who are able to get out of their financial situation and the kids who score higher academically are the kids who end up in a better socioeconomic status. Matthews said, "among smart kids who grew up poor, only 13 percent stay poor; the other 87 percent end up in a higher income bracket than their parents." This is a huge difference when looking at the kids who did not do so well. Of the kids who scored poorly on the cognitive test in school, over fifty percent on them stayed in the financial status they grew up in (Matthews). These numbers are vastly different and all it took was doing well in school for the child to be better off financially when they grew up. 

Now, this change of mindset from bad grades to good grades does not change with the flip of a switch. It is not always just the change of mindset for these kids that makes the difference. Sometimes these kids do everything in their power to do well but their home lives always come back to haunt them. Things like hunger and sleep deprivation have become the things that consume the children's minds rather than only having to worry about the lesson that the teacher has planned for that day. 

Many studies have proven the connection between childhood poverty and academic success. With fourteen percent of homes being food insecure a lot of researchers have looked more into child hunger as a direct cause of low academic rate (Basic Statistics). One study by Eric Jenson explained how he separated the children at a school by free and reduced lunch from the children who were not given discounted meals and looked at the classroom engagement that way. With his year-long study he discovered that there is a difference between the kids that need financial help in day to day life and the kids who do not necessarily need help, at least from the school meal aspect of it. There were seven specific differences that Jenson pointed out between the two groups, some of which being cognition, growth-mindset, and effort. The children with the financial help seemed to lag more and more as he went through the students (Jenson).

Stress is also something that kids in financially unstable households have in common. The stress hormone, called Cortisol, is something that researchers at the University of Rochester has become concerned with in child academic performance. When the researchers looked at young children, ages two through four, they found that the kids with excess cortisol and those who had low levels of cortisol had "lower than average cognitive ability". When they took a step deeper in trying to figure out why these kids had adverse levels of cortisol they found that kids with family instability and parent disengagement had the most adverse levels between the kids. Although they are unsure of why these levels are specifically causing the decrease in cognitive ability they are certain that they have a direct correlation with each other and it has a lot to do with how stable the child's home is and how engaged the parents are with the child.

Often times these kids that are looked at differently because of the financial situation that their parents are in and believe that they are not capable of being anything more than what their parents are. Their dreams drop from being president and a doctor, to just getting a job right out of high school. They know that their parents will not be able to pay for college, and so they work harder trying to find jobs in high school than they do trying to fix their GPA. With this loss of hope they too do not give themselves credit for what they could be. 

One other discrepancy between different home factors and academic success was the presence of divorce. It is a common thought throughout society that a divorce is between the marriage and should not and does not affect the children. After all it is not their marriage. What people do not realize is that divorces are often harder on the kids than the parents. Custody battles, parents leaving, and the arguing are all factors of a divorce that kids are directly involved in. With the separation of households many times parents have to work more in order to compensate for the lack of their spouse's income. Working more often leads to less time with kids. In these cases, kids often feel abandoned or they just feel as if they are not receiving the attention they need at home so they cause trouble at school in hopes that getting in trouble will force their parent to pay attention to them, good or bad. Also, parents no longer have time to help with homework at night or they no longer ask how the child is doing in school and so the child loses interest. More times than not the child just wants and needs to feel loved and cared for, and with family arguments and more time away they do not get that.

A group of men from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Yale Child Study Center conducted research on the how quality time with the parents correlates to a child academically. In their study they found that typically as a child gets older the parents spend less and less time with the child as they did in previous school years. They specifically looked at kids for three consecutive years, from kindergarten to third grade and the child involvement dropped, but so did the child's involvement academically. They saw firsthand how a child spending time with their family is important to their home life.

Now this study that these men researched and conducted was on average households. They did not look at if the child's parents were married, so this is a good look at an overall standpoint on all parents and the importance of parent involvement. When looking at this study in regards to the homes with divorced parents then the amount of time spent with the child drops dramatically. As stated before, one less parent in the household can lead to working more. The single parent is now responsible for all of the responsibilities around the house and they lose the time they once had with the child due to the increase in responsibilities.

Christine Kim, an expert in public policy, actually did a study on the impact of how a child's home life can affect their education. Her argument was focused mainly around the difference between kids in homes with two parental figures, versus homes with single parents. In her research she found that the kids in homes with two parents often scored higher in school married parents that really makes the difference, but it is the stability and time spent with the children that makes the difference. Her study alone is proof that kids with one parent in the household plays a huge role in the way a child learns and performs in school. 

Kids not only are just affected by the amount of quality time spent with their parents during a divorce, but they are affected with everything else that may go along with divorce; the fighting, court appearances, the change in their daily life. Having bad grades in school could just be the result of something bigger going on in the child's life such as depression. Depression in children has skyrocketed in numbers from two percent to just under twenty-five percent in just one single generation. Looking further into this children of divorced parents are seven times more likely to suffer from depression. And if that isn't scary enough, seventy-five percent of children in chemical-dependency hospitals come from single parent homes (Sedacca). Although these numbers may seem alarming there are many other kids around the world that are suffering with depression and no one is willing to recognize that the child has a problem and needs help. Without the help that a child going through depression needs they will struggle with social relationships, concentration, and school performance. All three of which are important to a child starting from a young age.

When looking at what all can influence how a child performs in school it is clear that poverty and divorce can play a huge role. The real question is what can be done to help the kids out that are in this situation. One thing that could make a huge difference in any bad situation for a kid is the realization that they may be going through something and that all kids interpret things different. This realization needs to come from all parties involved; teachers, parents, and students. Poverty, divorce, depression, and stress are all things that can affect the way a child spends their life. With the support of those around the child from an early age these things can be avoided or they can be learning experiences for the child. The kids have to understand that no matter the situation they are able to overcome it.

This is an issue that needs to be fixed. Kids deserve to have the opportunity to be anything and everything they want to be in life as long as they work hard for it. It is not hard to show compassion for those around us, especially those kids who were put into whatever situation out of their control. With the presence of a good home life and good education these kids are more likely to stay out of trouble. They will be able to play sports for their school. They will be able to lead the life that they want to live.

