I believe nurture is the most important in the development of behavior. Children need loving, caring, and encouraging parents. They need to feel loved and worthy. Children also need parents to teach them about life. Environment plays an extremely important role in the development of children.

If a boy's father was abusive to his mother, the boy is more than likely to abuse his wife. If a child emerges from a family who always hugged, then when she's an adult she will give hugs frequently. Parents need to encourage their children to dream. Children whose parents looked down on their dreams might not be as successful.

Take a look at the Indians of Park Rapids. They are brought thinking they won't amount to much. They think they have to be mean and violent. Many skip school, and if they do show up they are disrespectful to their teachers. They also are brought up to think all whites are racist. My grandma's twin sister married a man with juvenile diabetes. They didn't want their children to suffer so they adopted. One of them just happened to be an Indian. He is the nicest guy. He is married and has four children. All of who are extremely smart. His oldest is a junior at Dartmouth and his second is a sophomore at University of Minnesota. Their third child is a sophomore in high school and has completed all AP math classes. He would like to attend CAL Tech.

This is a great example of nurture vs. nature. My cousin is not the only Indian like this. There are many others. Ones whose parents were loving and encouraging. It is very important to love and care for ones child. One would like them to be the very best, and so must be in their lives.