I see thousands of Indians coming to USA and having a wonderful life. Indra Nooyi often says she grew up in a two room apartment (not two bedroom apartment). As an Indian in USA I often wonder why do so many American young kids don't show that fire in the belly ? There are of course honorable exceptions but most of the early teens I meet from low income neighborhoods simply are not ambitious enough.

I think a part of the reason is that the whole notion of standardized tests, a set factory assembly line like education model is to be blamed here. The baker I know, the car mechanic I know and the Sikh guy who runs the motel on my street they never went to college either but are fairly successful.

Whether you are good or bad at tests is irrelevant when the the very notion of these tests is essentially very elitist, it does not account for street smarts and variety of other factors that can lead to success in life. Unless you have a family and peers you will always live in a low information state where you simply don't know how to approach this education assembly line.

It might be offensive to some, but USA fought it war of independence because it believed you dont have to be born a Lord of Earl to be honorable and dream big. This is the home of the brave and land of free. But then our public edu system is everything opposite of that.

I was told the following 2x2 matrix by a retired school teacher. Think of a 2x2 matrix (with 4 blocks) along two dimensions. Compliance and IQ.

High IQ, High Compliance => These are the kids schools should promote, send to college and will end up working for Government and as white collar workers. They will pay taxes regularly and obey every law. They might not get laid as much or might not smoke weed ever but they might end up working for Google or Facebook.

High IQ, Low Compliance => These people while being worthy of college and other achievements the school system must discourage and discredit them right from an early age ensuring that no other student is influence by them. These are the rebels who question authority and challenge status quo. Most of them will live a miserable, unsatisfactory life disgusted with the system. However handful of them succeed and the above group ends up working for these people.

Low IQ, High Compliance => These the best of kids (in schools perspective). These are the kids that we must send to college even if they do not deserve it. They study things like Gender studies and Race relations and participate in Bernie Sanders rallies. They sometimes might pretend to be rebels but in reality are mere tools in the hands of people smarter than them.

Low IQ, Low Compliance => This assembly line leads straight to the Prison Industrial Complex. You deliberately create laws that these people will end up breaking and ensure heavy jail time for even minor crimes like possessing few grams of weed. A large set of American laws are such as a relatively high IQ informed citizen can easily avoid them but if anyone breaks the law he gets a very big jail time or even shot dead.

A lot of kids from minority or poor neighborhood show non compliance from an early age because they grew up in harsh environments. Hence the school system does everything to suppress them.