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Another point I want to make is that Jewish families/culture(and interestingly enough, Japanese & Chinese) encourages kids to follow purely intellectual pursuits. Judging from my Jewish friends' childhood stories, there was less of a fear of being called "nerd" or "geek" if you were interested in science or even purely intellectual pursuits (like learning Greek or Latin for "fun").
Contrast this to Latino/Black communities (not all but middle and ghetto).... if you're good at math, you get called a Nerd or if you do well in school you are accused of "trying to be white." I was lucky enough to grow up with an aunt and uncle who always wanted to go to college (but couldn't) so they valued education and intellectual curiosity. I guess I could have easily patterned myself after some neighborhood kids who were into the "thug life".... very easy. I guess its all choice... but having a community that has high academic expectations and an open mind towards intellectual curiosity (regardless of income) does count for a lot!
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