Well, yeah. People are individuals and respond to their environments in different ways. My point was less that everyone would automatically be mad and destructive and more that it’s silly to assume that everyone would be motivated by the mere proximity of apparent wealth, especially since the way the school is set up keeps students of varying backgrounds separate.

The issue is at least partially guidance, acceptance, and love. Definitely. But there’s also a lot of nuance to it and the attitude of “they have gazed upon the upper middle class and have still chosen to be disadvantaged and uncivilized” is damaging and incredibly unfair to those kids.

Yeah, this comment makes it clear that you are fairly ignorant about Allderdice and about how wealth inequality works in general. You don’t become wealthy via osmosis. Exposure to people who have more than you for no discernible reason besides race or random happenstance doesn’t make you suddenly want to go out of your way to be perfect in every way imaginable. More likely, it makes you mad. And mad teenagers do stupid shit, especially when peer pressure is involved.

Beyond that, Allderdice is shockingly segregated and has been for decades. The PPS Gifted Program has historically been overwhelmingly full of white kids from “good neighborhoods.” Black students currently make up less than 35% of the students in the program, district-wide. That’s not because they aren’t hard workers or don’t have the capacity to excel at higher levels, but because they simply weren’t offered the same advantages as their white peers. So tons of brilliant kids are stuck in practically remedial mainstream classes by no fault of their own, bored out of their minds, with no resources to help them engage more and actually learn and excel.

And I feel like I need to mention again, wealth isn’t a communicable disease. Exposure to it doesn’t mean you’re more likely to become wealthy yourself, especially if that exposure is fleeting and superficial.