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Several large studies of mobility in developed countries in recent years have found that the US among the lowest in mobility.[4][8] One study (“Do Poor Children Become Poor Adults?"
[8][9][12] found that of nine developed countries, the United States and United Kingdom had the lowest intergenerational vertical social mobility with about half of the advantages of having a parent with a high income passed on to the next generation. The four countries with the lowest "intergenerational income elasticity", i.e. the highest social mobility, were Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Canada with less than 20% of advantages of having a high income parent passed on to their children. (see graph)[8]
According to journalist Jason DeParle
At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations. A project led by Markus Jantti, an economist at a Swedish university, found that 42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults. That shows a level of persistent disadvantage much higher than in Denmark (25 percent) and Britain (30 percent) — a country famous for its class constraints.[13] Meanwhile, just 8 percent of American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth. That compares with 12 percent of the British and 14 percent of the Danes. Despite frequent references to the United States as a classless society, about 62 percent of Americans (male and female) raised in the top fifth of incomes stay in the top two-fifths, according to research by the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Similarly, 65 percent born in the bottom fifth stay in the bottom two-fifths.[4][14]
The Economist also stated that "evidence from social scientists suggests that American society is much `stickier` than most Americans assume. ... would-be Horatio Algers are finding it no easier to climb from rags to riches, while the children of the privileged have a greater chance of staying at the top of the social heap. The United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society."[10][15]
...having heard over and over from my kids how they can't do something or other because "I'm not good at it". Every time, I tell them that people who are good at things have worked long and hard at, without exception. Yet all my illustrative stories and explanations later, it seems to have not made a dent in my household.
I can only think that the whole idea is picked up from and reinforced by their peers, teachers, and other adults. In any case, it frustrates me no end to see them limits themselves so much before they have even tried anything, and perpetually bail out of anything effortful because they think it should be easy, if only they were talented. 
Then she took it one final time and made an A..
The difference? The first three times she had a football coach as algebra teacher and the last time the teacher was a woman who was not a coach..
By that fourth try daughter was thoroughly convinced she would never understand algebra and I was starting to agree with her, even though I could do her algebra homework I never could explain it in a way that got through to her, then she found someone who could make sense of it for her.
Disturbing pictures have emerged of a classroom full of Chinese high school students hooked up to IV drips so they stay alert as they cram for the annual "gaokao" -- college entrance exam.
Some 9.5 milion students will take the two-day exam in June to compete for some 6.5 places in Chinese colleges. The competition is most intense for the elite universities like Beijing's Peking University and Tsinghua University.
http://behindthewall.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/07/11580943-chinese-students-use-iv-drips-while-test-cramming?chromedomain=worldblog
One assumes the "6.5 places" is a mistake and should read as "6.5 million places."
