A religion-based anecdote like this sounds very odd to my Western European/Australian ears. I simply can't imagine anyone here in the UK or in Australia (where

A religion-based anecdote like this sounds very odd to my Western European/Australian ears. I simply can't imagine anyone here in the UK or in Australia (where I went to school and university) making such statements relating students' diligence to religious background. (For what it's worth, I went to a Church of England-run high school, where the top students were overwhelmingly non-religious.) In so many ways, the USA is a very different country...