Education expectations rose after the First World War.
The Education Act 1918 reflected growing belief that children should spend longer in education.
It sat within wider changes about childhood, labour, citizenship and the role of the state.
Longer education increases opportunity, but it also increases the responsibility to support children who struggle within school.
The more society relies on school as the route to adulthood, the more damaging it becomes when a child is failed there.
A common mistake is thinking more education is automatically better. More time in an inaccessible system can mean more harm.
Who had power here, who was left outside, and what would have changed if the human being was seen first?
These deep dives open out from this part of the timeline.