<p>Also, there can be a rather significant cultural gap between a public school athlete from a blue collar town and the average HYPS student. An athlete friend of D’s who fits that SE description visited us over winter break. We went to the theater one evening and learned that the student had never in his life before then seen a production of “A Christmas Carol,” or the “Nutcracker,” which was very surprising to us and we are solidly middle class. So one can imagine how certain cultural references made in a classroom would not be understood by some students, and could make then seem dumb. </p>