Matthew, there are cultural practices in any community that discourage children rather than encourage them. Most of them have to do with our view of children being "seen and not heard" or needing to "show respect" to their elders. There's nothing wrong with respect, but there are better and worse ways to promote it.

Thank you for endorsing my point of view. I've spent a great deal of time studying language and literacy development. I never want to consider anyone's culture "lacking," per se, but as I've said, there are better and worse practices, and we all need to learn the ones that promote scholarship rather than those that inhibit it.