Do Parents Matter?

How would Gladwell respond to the identity question from August 27th? How would Levitt and Dubner respond?

I feel like Gladwell would respond to the identity question from august 27 by saying that we are our location. Gladwell talks mostly about how peers are what influences a person’s identity, and who they truly are. Gladwell mentions that a child who is born in poverty and in a place in which is full of poverty the child is more likely to be suitable to trouble and likely hood of dropping out of school. Where you live has a lot to do with the type of people you are going to encounter, according to Gladwell. Using the example that if a child is raised in a poor neighbor hood or environment the child is more likely to get in to trouble can also be an affection of the peers that the child would meet in this location. If what Gladwell is saying is true than a child being raised in that type of environment would be influenced by his or her peers of that environment. Making a child it's location. I feel that Levitt and Dubner would respond by saying that we are our family. They seem to believe that is our genes that make us who we are. If we have intelligent parents then we are most likely going to be intelligent. According to them our personality, and ultimately who we are comes from our family, the genes that have been passed down. They believe that when the parent is younger, and setting up patterns in their life on how they handle situations is what affects the child. Not whether or not they listen to Mozart in the womb or not. I do agree with this. i belive that our genes make up a huge part of who we are, but the rest that cannot be decided by genes alone is based on your peers. The people who you hang out with tend to be like you. There is no way that you can possibly interact with someone your own age and not be influenced by thier actions. Whether or not they influnece you not to be like them or not to do something or to be like them they are still influencing you, therefore becoming a part of who you are. I belive that parents do not have as much influence on a child or person as much as thier peers do. A parent is around thier child a significantly less amount of time than they are with thier friends, leaving more time for them to be influenced by them. For example high school cliques are not formed by parents telling them to fit into a certain sterio type, they are made and fit into by the influence of thier friends and how they present them selves.