Reply #83: Anti-intellectualism is something that plagues all of America

[manic expression]

sadly, all classes and all ethnicities suffer from this problem. To add insult to injury, kids growing up in poverty don't have any role models, and so they look up to people they shouldn't be looking up to. It sure as sh*t isn't their fault, and it would be ludicrous to blame the parents (it is an accomplishment to get enough to pay rent under those circumstances, much less get their kids to do their homework).

On top of all of this, there is a loathesome lack of funding in public schools. Things like books are scarce in impoverished school districts. Kids will learn if they have the ability to do so, but sadly, that ability is almost nonexistent for many kids in poverty.

So really, these kids have no one to look up to, have many concerns and challenges in everyday life, no resources to learn from and little incentive to learn in the first place. WHAT DO PEOPLE EXPECT?

And lastly, when poor kids, most of them minorities, see well-to-do kids, most of them white with i-pods and cars, of course they're going to want to have them, too!