I'm going to go out on a limb and guess your parents could read and value education? You probably also had books in your house?
1 in 3 children in the UK have no books in their house. Their parents do not instill the value of education and so it is wasted. Do you blame the kids for this? Do they have much of a choice in every case? Not really.
Many of my friends are English teachers. They educate 11-16yr olds and do not take it for granted that kids can read or write at any kind of decent or literate level anymore. In short, you are privileged your parents valued reading and had books accesable for you. You're more privilged in that area than 3 out every 10 kids in the UK.
I think you hit the nail on the head here, middle class families value education. Our lower class subculture typically doesn't, going so far as to make fun of kids who DO try to learn. This isn't something you fix with entitlements...