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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is a theory out there that is roughly called Grit- basically how much capacity a person has to stick through the hard stuff.  I think we can see for a lot of kids poor and middle class that this can be a challenge.  What I see happens to poor kids is that there is no back up if a kid does not express that level of grit and often are socieital effects which provide counter effects.  Its an interesting theory.

What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?

Dominic Randolph can seem a little out of place at Riverdale Country School — which is odd, because he’s the headmaster. Riverdale is one of New York City’s most prestigious private schools, with a 104-year-old campus that looks down grandly on Van Cortlandt Park from the top of a steep hill in the richest part of the Bronx. On the discussion boards of UrbanBaby.com, worked-up moms from the Upper East Side argue over whether Riverdale sends enough seniors to Harvard, Yale and Princeton to be considered truly “TT” (top-tier, in UrbanBabyese), or whether it is more accurately labeled “2T” (second-tier), but it is, certainly, part of the city’s private-school elite, a place members of the establishment send their kids to learn to be members of the establishment. Tuition starts at $38,500 a year, and that’s for prekindergarten.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?_r=1 
 [/quote]

I think the lack of a support system is key. If I had not had a program called Prep for Prep backing me up, I would have never been able to manage the set back and frustrations I encountered when I went to a school similar to Riverdale.  It's not that parents don't want to help you achieve it's that 1) they don't know how to help and 2) they don't understand the cumulative effect of lots of small decisions like limiting television, speaking often to the child since birth, enouraging reading- constant reading, access to educational toys, and exposure by way of trips to museums etc. By the time the child arrives in kindergarden, the child is already behind. Not from lack of intelligence just from lack of capital invested in the child.

http://www.prepforprep.org/[/quote]

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