Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge, which helps an individual to develop his personality. From birth to early childhood, when children start the process of learning motor and cognitive skills, economy plays an important role. In most cases, children from better economic backgrounds have been found to learn faster. Better economic condition guarantees resources, which could be used to accelerate the learning process. For instance, using cognitive learning toys from birth can launch infants into developing motor skills and learning numbers and colors more quickly. Places like Gymboree and Little Gym also help young children learn things faster. However, the economically deprived child only has his parents, caregivers and library programs to help in initiating and developing the learning process. From the very beginning, resources create a division in the learning process.
Economic discrepancy continues to influence the learning process of school-aged children. Children from economically stable families start school earlier, as they have access to private nursery schools. Children from economically disadvantaged families, on the other hand, must often wait until they are of a certain age to benefit from free public schools. The inconsistency doesn't end here. Every year during summer breaks, some children get the benefit of attending summer camps. These summer camps are expensive, but they also offer a range of activities to students. The children taking advantage of these activities are learning more things faster. Children with financial shortcomings tend to lose out on learning these skills. They have talents outside of the public school setting, but learning takes a back seat because of economy. Studying math or language skills outside school curriculum using programs like Kumon or Abacus also affects learning skills. Again, not all children can take advantage of these special learning methods or skills due to economic factors.
All over the world, there are learning disparities among children and young adults. And economy is the factor---what you learn at a young age or what you fail to learn has a lot to do with the resources and opportunities you are getting. That may be the reason why many students from economically disadvantaged families fail to go to college. Learning without external stimuli such as money and resources disadvantages students in terms of future opportunities.
Economic factors definitely affect learning starting from infancy. However, it would not be fair to assume that the economically advantaged always achieve success in life, or that the economically disadvantaged are doomed to fail. Economic benefits do give an edge to people with access to the abundant resources required for learning, but it is possible to overcome this deficit with talent and hard work.