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... and so a lot depends on the socio-economic environment in which children are raised and educated. In upper middle-class suburbia where I grew up, straight-A students were admired, almost revered by those who were not able or willing to achieve that level. In rural slum areas with low tax bases (in the U.S. anyway) and under-funded schools, peer pressure keeps many students from rising above what is often the norm of "just getting out" and free from classrooms. Children seen as 'geeks' are ostracized by the majority, and it takes an extraordinary amount of maturity and will-power and parental support to ignore that and soak up all the knowledge available through reading.
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