items of interest

with contributions from Judith Rich Harris, Larry Dossey, Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller, Phyllis Ten Elshof, Annie Murphy Paul

"Norwadays parents are likely to be held culpable for anything that goes wrong with their child, even if they've done their best. The evidence I've assembled ... indicates that there is a limit to what parents can do. ... the environment that shapes the child's personality and social behavior is outside the home. ...

"Although individual parents have little power to influence ... children's peer groups, ... parents acting together have a great deal of power, and so does the society as a whole. Through the prevailing methods of child rearing it fosters, and through influences—especially the media—that act directly on peer-group norms and values, a society shapes the adults of the future."

Judith Rich Harris, author of The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do "How to Succeed in Childhood" Wilson Quarterly
Winter, 1999

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