Reply #11: Wanted to add...

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

plenty of my classmates flunked a couple of subjects (which they could repeat with an exam in the summer) or, if they failed 3 subjects or more, they would have to repeat that particular school year.

Moreover, there were kids whose parents were not very involved as well as kids whose parents were very involved. Socioeconomic background didn't mean a thing.

At that time, we were very poor but my parents always got me books (because I was a voracious reader) and encouraged me to talk about 'stuff' from literature to science to history.

As for the teachers, I was fortunate to have awesome teachers. They didn't have a background in education (in that, in Italy, you don't major in education unless you teach at the elementary school or kindergarten levels), but in the field they taught. They truly loved to teach. They encouraged creative thinking and inquiry. In fact, the Socratic method was widely applied. My sister, on the other hand, was not so lucky, but she was still exposed to all of this.