I cried a few times hearing Helen’s story. Those poor children ( and I don’t mean materially ).

Before these authors lived what they lived and the books they went on to write Aldous Huxley observed in the 1930s the personal and social effect that compulsory education was having on the English working class. Not only were they becoming empowered by the ability to understand the economic and legal world , they could read newspapers and contracts and such, but they could self educate on issues that helped their lives, like hygiene and nutrition. But most importantly education gave them the ability to structure and analyse what they observed and learnt about the world and the people around them.

I think these books and books like them are a product of that. ( Tho of course Helen came from a middle class family. )