Applications of general principles, for example giving up corrupt practices like ranking people, forced competition, use of reward and punishment as standard practice, and so on, are discussed elsewhere. Here we are presenting our triage of the modern educational system. Of those many variables, most have small effects, but a few variables affect educational success profoundly. This article is about those few, immensely powerful variables, and what we might well do about them. Brains are made out of food.
Successful brains are a combination of food and love.
You have to find a way for people who would rather avoid being mothers to do so. If you think you can't afford to feed all your pregnant community members, you have to think more clearly about economics. Even if your main focus is saving the taxpayers' money, one of the best ways to do that is to make sure that the mothers and infants in your community eat well. If a child is fed properly as an infant, malnutrition while that child is a toddler will still have harmful effects, but not nearly so harmful as the effects of fetal and infant malnutrition. The older the child when the malnutrition begins, the smaller the disastrous effects of malnutrition.