Part 20    What is expected of youth?

As research repeats over and over how young people with out-of-home care background have poor educational and employment outcomes, is it perhaps that no one expects more of them, or that they are considered not capable of being educated, either? This argument can be immediately criticised as an urge to push youth into middle class or to get them to join some kind of rat race. The most important issue is considered to be their continued progress, from one day to the next, which naturally is of primary importance. There may be gaps in their education, or their studies may have been interrupted. They may also have difficulties with learning, concentration, or language development. Nevertheless, young people transitioning from out-of-home care often dream of education and permanent jobs. What if this is one reason why they cannot find meaning in their lives or consider themselves valuable? Finnish schools and special education are considered to be first-rate, but why do they leave some young people side-tracked? Does their background affect other people’s expectations of them?

I come from working-class background myself, and my teacher at lower elementary school had expressed doubts to my mother about my ability to enter ’oppikoulu’ [equivalent to the British grammar school].  Luckily, I later asked my mother why she did not believe that I could handle oppikoulu. My mother said that it was not she who thought that way, but my teacher. My childhood experiences have made me class-conscious.