<p>"If they were “interested” in attracting kids of blue collar workers, they’ve had them. There is no shortage of intelligent, gifted blue-collar kids. "</p>
<p>There is a relative shortage of intelligent, gifted blue-collar kids who are college bound and who have the academic prep to succeed at a place like Harvard. This is because blue collar kids aren’t as likely to get shunted into the AP and other rigorous classes as are kids of parents from professional backgrounds. Even if GCs suggest that they take those classes, the kids may refuse because their neighborhood friends aren’t in them or because they think the classes would be too hard.</p>
<p>There also is a shortage of intelligent, gifted blue-collar kids who are college bound and who would want to go to a place like Harvard, a place that many people from nonaffluent backgrounds would view as a place for snobbish wealthy people whom they’d feel uncomfortable with.</p>
<p>For many intelligent kids from blue collar families it’s an enormous stretch to even go to their local public university. Going to a place like Harvard would seem to many to be so far outside of their comfort zone that they wouldn’t want to do it.</p>
<p>Unlike affluent and upper middle class parents who may be eager for their kids to go to a place like an Ivy, blue colar parents may discourage their kids for fear that their kids would become ashamed of them or become so different that they’d no longer fit into the family.</p>
<p>When I taught college, I repeatedly saw kids from low income and blue collar families who were sabatoged by their parents who apparently felt threatened by their kids’ getting a college education. Of course, this was not true in all cases, but I did see it several times. I never saw it with blue collar/low income immigrants (who presumably had come to the U.S. for educational opportunities for their kids), but I did see it with several students whose parents were low income or blue collar native born Americans.</p>