Nurture strongly influences early human development
People tend to believe that the environment surrounding us has strong influence on the process of our growth and makes us who we are in adulthood. However some people have an alternate opinion and doubt the nurture part of our development, stating that nature decides what we will become. The following present arguments on both sides of the issue
The public has an opinion that nurture has great influence on the human’s early development, maybe even greater than the nature. Why do people think so? Try reading (watching) “Jungle Book” (“Maugli”) or “Tarzan”. These stories help us to imagine and understand how a child of human nature can become a representative of a wolf or a gorilla tribe. Of course some may say that all such stories are pure science fiction. But “wild nature children” also appear in the real world. This can happen if a human spends all of his or hers childhood with a group of particular animals. Such horrible stories are evidence of the theory, that the environment, surrounding the child, can be the only factor that influences human development on the infantile and childhood stage.
The other evidence of the belief that nurture plays a great role in the growth of a child is the case of two brilliant adults having an “ordinary” baby. Or on the opposite - what if two not too intelligent parents have a boy or a girl who is a genius?! You may say that the child’s ancestors were very bright. And what if even they were not that clever!? The only real explanation of this is the surroundings. The environment makes children do more reasonable things and improves their intelligence. As written by Theodore D. Wachs in his academic issue on the nature and nurture sides of child development “the competent i ...