The Importance of Background Knowledge

The background knowledge I am talking about is not the kind you are probably thinking. I am not talking about academic background knowledge that is so important for learning, but rather, the background knowledge that is so important to have on your students to be able to help them. In my Kindergarten class, there is a boy who has obvious behavior problems but is so smart. He also has parents that are divorced and while one parent (Parent X) wants to have him evaluated to get him the behavior help he needs, the other parent (Parent Y)  does not. While this boy is at Parent X's house, we can see a decrease in his behavior problems at school. But when he has to go to Parent Y's house, he gets moody, he acts out, and loses control while at school. Since the teacher is aware of this information, she is able to better predict what kind of day he will have and is able to set up various things that will help him succeed on those days that are not his best.