Opinion+Paper

Aaron Long Black 3 5/21/08   Peers Vs. Parents Who is to blame when a person kills a person? Or when a group of kids beats and maims a fellow child. Do we blame the people that raise this deviant, or was it the person themselves that caused. A well-known saying is, “ Nurture Vs. Nature.” This is the controversy that many scientists are feuding about. I believe that parents as well peers factor into how a person acts and what decisions they make. In __The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do; Parents Matter Less Than You Think and Peers Matter More__, written by Judith Harris, she says that what a child does and grows into factors less by what a parent does, but more by the peers say and do. "that what influences children's development... is the way their parents bring them up... is wrong." Says Harris. But when reading the book __Lord of the Flies,__ by William Golding, he shows that the children on the island have a sense of society installed by there parents and adults in there life. Roger, a young boy from the __Lord of the Flies__ begins throwing rocks at other child, but never hit him. Because of the thoughts of right and wrong that was in the back of his mind. But later in the story he then kills a boy with a bigger rock, as if to shatter through the shield of society. But he only does this when his “peers” of fellow children become savages. Influencing his discussions to kill. But the group of kids did not become savages until there wasn’t any adult guidance telling them right and wrong. But in Harris’s experience with her own family, one girl adopted and one biological, they grew up in the same situation, but her biological daughter was a peaceful loving child. Where as the adopted one was a riot. "... are no more alike than identical twins separated in infancy and reared in different homes." Apparently, being reared by the same parents did nothing to increase twins' alikeness. Same with siblings. "[B]eing reared by the same parents [has] little or no effect on [their] adult personalities," writes Harris. But when do the peers come in? Then all aspirations of society fail, and chaos grows. I believe there is a balance, just like every thing else in this world, parents and peers, has an equal part in the growth and development of a child. Because with out the parental shield, Roger, would have been hitting the child in the beginning with rocks. But without that constant reinforcement of society, roger was then absorb into the savage minds of his peers. Making him kill another. So does Peers or Parents make a difference when a child grows, or is a delicate balance that shapes the person? But I do agree with Harris on one thing, children can’t be shaped like Play-Doh. The actions that occurs during its lifetime, and the response summoned by it tells one who they are. When someone does do something outside of society, where does the line get drawn, peers or parents to blame? I believe that the peers and parent are equally to blame, but that person made the decision to do it. And that’s where the blame should go.