Authors, Books, and Chocolate: The True ABC's of Life

 

Nature or Nurture?

As an Early Childhood Education major, I must have heard this question dozens of times. Is it nature (genes and internal influences) that shapes a child into the adult he/she becomes...or is it nurture (environment and external influences)?

Several people have theorized on this and we had to study them all. From Piaget to Freud, and all those in between, the 'Greats' of what shapes us from conception to death developed and tested their beliefs and ideas.

For many of us, or at least for me, I believe it's both. 

Sure, we are conceived and born with traits like personality (shy or outgoing? brilliant at wordsmithing or brilliant at math...or both?) and hair and eye color, height, body type, how long our legs are, and whether we have dozens of freckles or none at all. But none of those alone make us WHO we become.

We have externals that influence, those nurture things like loving or distant parents. Did we grow up in a small town or a big city, in UK or US? Did we have siblings or only child? Do we speak English or Italian? Access to high-performing schools or poor areas of overburdened educators and over-stretched budgets? These add to what we are, shape us, guide us, and set a stage for later phases of our lives. But they alone still don't make us who we are.

A shy person in a small US town with four siblings and devoted parents with be a much different person than someone who grew up in urban Paris as an only child in a boarding school. See what I mean?

In today's world, especially in the country where I live, violence and deaths committed by young people are becoming more and more common. Is it their nature? Something in their genes? Or is it the environment? Have we created these seemingly no-remorse, mass murders by trying to create a better environment with tons of technology and a trophy just for breathing?

Or is it a bit of both?

I thought of my ECE courses and the 'Greats' so many times while writing 'When You Believe'. In this book (the sixth Weddings by C & C...and the first Abbeville series novel), Daniel is a man abandoned as an infant who grows up without ever feeling he 'belongs'. In direct contrast, Monica knows exactly where she belongs: the third of four children, in a small town, with tons of quirky neighbors and devoted parents. The difference between Monica and Daniel is nature AND nurture...but it's these very differences that draw them to each other and help create the miracle of lifetime love.

I hope you'll think of nature and nurture and what shapes us as people while you take the journey into love with Daniel and Monica.