Yet the document questioned the tenets of developmental determinism, reminding educators of the complexity of children’s learning trajectories, and suggesting they move away from the quest for simple solutions and instead embrace these complexities: “No one factor, no one method, no one endearing human characteristic, can be seized as a magic wan which will transform children into life-long learners and adventurers” (p. 24). Nevertheless, the document described the middle-class home as a “natural” setting for children’s learning:

Teaching children simple numbers, content, helping them become aware of time, naming parts of the body, concepts of colour and direction these are some of the countless words and games that most middle-class parents take for granted and teach almost unconsciously. Feeling objects, finding words for experiences, talking about events and things out of sight or from yesterday, anticipating the future, are the subtle ways in which a child in a loving, caring atmosphere acquires the foundation upon which a school can build. (Hall & Dennis, 1968, p. 52)

In contrast, deprived homes were constructed as providing little of use to their children’s learning:

In deprived conditions adults may speak to children, and the children may play on the street with old tin cans and tires, but the limitation of the quality in variety and sequential presentation of ideas compromises the child’s vocabulary and comprehension from a very early age. These children often have had little acquaintance with books, tend to reverse letters and are pegged as failures early in their school experience. (Hall & Dennis, 1968, p. 52)

Perhaps as an inter-textual reference to the “smart baby” movement and intervention methods associated with Doman (1964), the document recommended that children from “deprived environments” benefit from enriched learning rather than methods to “rapidly upgrade disadvantaged children” (Hall & Dennis 1968, p. 52). Instead, the authors of the document argued that children’s learning:

[C]annot follow a set time table. Any time of day or night and any day of the weekend or any season may herald a new idea. Solid programming for every moment of time may not of necessity create a positive learning experience. For the mind, like a machine, may make its leaps in moments of serenity and solitude. (Hall & Dennis, 1968, p. 46)