My husband was one of eight siblings. His mother had been raised in a wealthy family with judges and lawyers but she married a poor man that her family did not approve of so they shunned her.

His mother instilled a love of reading and learning in all of her children, but she died when he was 14 and his family fell apart. The younger kids went to live with relatives but my husband and one brother were left to fend for themselves and he had to work evenings at a grocery store in order to survive. Prior to his mother's death he did very well in school and even represented his school in a math competition but things changed overnight. He and his brother had to work to survive. Nobody recommended college for them because they were poor. My husband ended up joining the army as soon as he could and worked his way up to a very high level because of his intelligence and leadership ability. He didn't sit around feeling sorry for himself because of hardships. He was successful because of his attitude and work ethic.

His brother also worked his way up to a high level and is very successful in business in spite of earlier hardships. Their younger sister was only about 5 when their mother died so she was raised by relatives. I don't think she ever went hungry but she also developed the same work ethic that allowed her to earn multiple degrees, including a PhD. An older sister learned languages very easily and can speak fluently in several different languages. My husband said he knew linguists in the army that had this ability. I think this would require a high degree of intelligence, especially if you are able to learn new languages easily as an adult.

My husband knew what it was like to struggle to have enough to eat and he didn't want his kids to struggle in any way, so his older son didn't have to work hard at anything. He is so very smart but he doesn't do anything with it.

My mother used to be very smart. Her father died when she was a baby, and her mother remarried but the family struggled financially so she never went to college, but she read all the time, loved crossword puzzles and was good at answering Jeopardy questions. She worked her way up to a very good job in the federal government without college. I think she knew more than a lot of people with college degrees and she a lot of her knowledge was self taught. My mother is one of the reasons I found the confidence I needed to homeschool my son. I could see that it is possible to learn without going to school. My Dad was very supportive also because he could also see that public school was not going to work for my son. He was raised in a poor family after his father died when he was very young but his brothers worked their way through school and became engineers. He wanted to be a teacher but joined the military when my mother became pregnant with me. For so many people life just gets in the way of reaching their potential, but then for others, it looks like everything has been made easy for them and they don't do anything with it.