I know some teachers who work with kids in that sort of demographic, and some of those kids come from situations the awfulness of which is hair-raising -- they're doing well just to show up; proficiency in reading and math is strictly secondary to just being in a place where they can eat breakfast and not have to hide from mom's latest "boyfriend."
You nailed it. Culture is a much bigger factor. And wasted early years not developing language and social skills, and even poor nutrition will cause anyone to fall short of their intelligence potential. Intelligence itself is a very small part financial success and happiness anyway. Most jobs and careers don’t require supreme intelligence or even broad knowledge. Upbringing, attitude and individual choices are the deciding factors. I’d place networking and a little luck ahead of smarts too.
“I know some teachers who work with kids in that sort of demographic, and some of those kids come from situations the awfulness of which is hair-raising — they’re doing well just to show up; proficiency in reading and math is strictly secondary to just being in a place where they can eat breakfast and not have to hide from mom’s latest “boyfriend”.”
The idea of the libs is to keep them as far away from their “parent(s)” as possible, for as much of the day as possible, costs be damned.
A friend of mine describes having young students (2nd grade) that do not know the word for “book” (although they are American, and know plenty of other words). They literally have never seen one in their home...
Hopeless