Nature Or Environment?

Are children's actions based on nature or on their environment? This is the most common question in psychology and parenting. In most of the cases, morning shows try to give advises to parents on how to treat their children, and the majority of experts agree on that it may not be the children that are doing the things wrong but the parents.

On one hand, people from the nature perspective argues that children are born just the way they are. Some experiences might have an effect on them but the way people are born defines the way the will be during the rest of their lives. No outside changes or events can modify the way people were born.

On the other hand, there is the strict environmental position. Environmentalists argue that people are born as a blank slate and that the environment is responsible for deciding the kind of person a children can become. The events establish what will happen to a children's life.  This is a position that supports environment dependant feelings. Sometimes, people tend to think they can't manage their lives at all because outside events determine their attitude.

Those who believe that the environment has a major impact on children and adults, including those on the morning televisions shows, would say that although people are born with certain tendencies, they are mostly a blank slate upon which their environment writes. In order for children to grow up healthy and happy, parents are the primary persons who create who a child will be in the future. These researchers encourage parents to help their children feel that they may not be in control of every aspect of their
lives but that they can choose the way in which they react to things that happen to them. 

The discussion between Nature and nurture (environment) is pretty old. Nevertheless, there is no sure answer that can support either one or the other side. Probably nobody will ever find out if children are born a certain way or if their environment determines the adult they will become.  Many people stand in the middle of this discussion and they argue that, although a child might be born with certain personality features, these can be modified by his environment and its impact on him. These tips are important and parents should seriously consider them in order to build a healthy environment for their child. This will surely help him growing into a liable and loving adult.

Trevor Mileu is the ownder and operator of Environments, Inc, which is a youth environmental group.  For more infomration go to:  www.environmentgo.com