Originally Posted by Eric5273

And that is most likely because while you were growing up, someone (perhaps your parents?) told you many times that getting into a good school is important. And they probably told you this so many times over the years that today you believe them, even though you actually don't have any personal experience to tell you that it is true.

Unfortunately, these inner-city kids have parents that in most cases cannot even take care of themselves. In most cases they are single-parent families, and in many cases the "parent" is someone who really has no business being a parent. Very few of these kids grow up learning the same values as you did. Most of them don't even know anyone who went to college, and when they look around, the only people they see who are "successful" in their eyes are criminals -- everyone else they know is poor. So the criminals they see driving the fancy cars and wearing the expensive clothes are the people who become their roll models.