Teachers or parents?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-07/teens-in-u-s-rank-25th-on-math-test-trail-in-science-reading.html

The reason for this question comes from personal experience.  My sister in law is a teacher and says there are no bad teachers.  My personal experience differs to some degree.

I know of a young man that graduated from a computer science class #1 ahead of the Chinese and Indian students.  He attended a public school.  He graduated summa cum laude and became Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year at college.  He was also part of a published scientific paper as an undergrad.

His background is from a middle class family that was involved with his life and encouraged self education.  They exposed him to America's culture by visiting museums, art galleries, exhibits, traveling on vacations that were semi educational and making materials such as computers available to him.

It seems that the public school system wasn't the only influence.