Nature and Nurture

We all know that a better education will enable a person to get a good and stable job in the society. But, there are also people who, with no formal education, are able to run a successful business. A person who is raised in a well loved and cared for family will likely become a law-abiding citizen and a responsible head of the household. But, there are also people who come from similar family environment and become a murderer, molester, or thief. To be a prolific writer, an opera composer, a heart surgeon, or an astronaut, requires special mental prowess and physical attributes that no amount of education and training can create. On the other hand, despite the laws, capital punishments, and imprisonment, criminals from all walks of life just keep coming oblivious to the consequence of their actions. Each person is born (Nature) with unique mental and physical capabilities that cannot be altered during one’s life time and how their potentials are utilized depends on outside stimulus (Nurture).

Home

After a person is born, one is totally defenseless and at the mercy of the outside world. The home gives the new born a chance to grow and develop one’s mental and physical potentials. In a well caring, playful, and stress-free environment both in and around the home, the person will be able to complete the first stage of one’s destiny to become who and what one is. If the person is malnutrition, mistreated, and or abused, the damage caused can be irreversible as to prevent the person to make full use of one’s potentials later in life. For example:

1. For a body that is built to play professional sport, malnutrition may inhibit its proper development causing the individual to excel in recreational sport only,

2. An abused childhood can cause so much psychological trauma that prevents the individual to function normally later in life.

3. When the parents force piano lessons on the child, the person may develop such loathing that later in life, one will try to avoid it anyway one can.

School

For most people, going to school is the time they find out what interests them and what they are capable of. School teaches the students not only the basic skills and knowledge to live in the society away from the home but also all the subject matters that make our great civilization lasting 7000 years. In the early school years, the person just takes in all that are taught with innocent eyes and open mind. After 12 years of studying and learning, each person is ready to venture out into the world to live an independent existence equipped with fully developed and unique mental and physical capabilities. For those who drop out of the school early for whatever reason, they put their growing up at the mercy of the unforgiving, competitive, and professional world:

1. A born athletic may spend the prime of one’s life working in a factory to make ends need,

2. Without a proper education, a person can never be a doctor, astronaut, judge, treasurer, etc.,

3. Without educational credentials, a person has to work harder to convince the others what one is capable of.

Society

A person can enter the society to find food to eat, a place to live, a mate to marry, and most importantly, to find out what one is born and or trained to do in life. Our society is a man-made world that provides its inhabitants a life not only of quantity but also quality. In the society, there are:

1. Hospital – nurse, internist, cardiologist, urologist, oncologist, surgeon, etc,

2. School – teacher, professor, counselor, principle, etc.,

3. Theater - actor, director, screen writer, producer, editor, etc.,

4. Sport – baseball, basketball, football, hockey, tennis, etc.,

5. Government – judge, prosecutor, legislator, policeman, etc.,

6. Business – banker, financier, investor, entrepreneur, shop owner, etc.

7. Science – astronomer, physicist, mathematician, engineer, etc.

   What keeps the society performing its important function is a never-ending stream of people with diverse skills taking up positions in the establishments. Our society grows in size, complexity, and diversity in step with our population. No one is born to be a teacher, banker, doctor, judge, or basketball player. But, each person is born with the capabilities that can be molded and or influenced to be one oo more of those roles.

World

In the animal world, the diverse capabilities can be found everywhere and are the keys to the survival of the animals and the working of the eco-system which keeps the environment clean, healthy, and livable. There are:

1. Bees that eat nectar as food while pollinating flowers and plants,

2. Ants that consume everything including the dead animals’ remains,

3. Snakes that keep the rodent population in check,

4. Birds that keep the insect population under control.

5. Cows have specialized stomach to eat grass as food while the tigers have muscle, sharp teeth and claws to bring down zebra as food, etc.

   These animals’ Nature has no time for Nurture. As soon as they are born, they are ready to do what they are supposed to till their demise. We, the humans, are like a diamond in the rough that can be polished, shaped, and or broken. As soon as we are born, we are at the mercy of Nurture. It will not be till adulthood that our Nature is fully developed to enable us to change the world. We all leave our marks along the journey; some are big, some are small, some are good, and some are bad. Our 7000 years of civilization is a testimony to the importance of the diverse human Nature, the power of Nurture, and the inevitability of its intended finale.