I agree with FLU about parental influence and peer influence. I went to a public school in a different state and it was by no means in a rich neighborhood. It was a large high school and what differentiated the education was whether you were taking AP classes. Yes there were a lot of Asians, but there were also whites, latinos, and blacks to a lesser extent in these classes. My friends and social circle were completely different than the kids in non AP classes. Most of my peers had been in an advanced track from the time they were in grade school. It breeds a very different mentality. Attending college wasn’t a question. It was how high is your SAT score compared to your friends or how well did you test, or where did you rank in your class? It was a highly competitve microenvironment within a school with many minority kids. Complete with gangs. It was about which colleges you got accepted into, not whether you were going. I had no concept if the non AP kids were thinking about college. My parents likewise always imparted the importance of education and college was never something I questioned until I actually go to college.
I agree that neighborhoods such as CV attract families who will do everything to buy a home there because of the school district. The people in that neighborhood are more likely to contain a peer group both at the parent level as well as at the kid level that are likeminded in their value system for education.
In my opinion, value of education has less to do with whether the parents are white collared or blue collar. It has to do with what type of profession the parents WANT their kids to be in, which are white collar ones. Parents, white or blue collar have to value education. I know many immigrant parents who may not have college educations due to lack of opportunity or access in their home country, but very much set the standard high for their kids. I also know white collar, college educated parents who are too busy, too selfish, too self absorbed, too hands off to provide guidance, participate in their children lives, or just fail to impart the value of education in their kids. Some of these kids flounder in life and don’t achieve the standard of living their parents do because education and working hard was never instilled in them.
