by TFP » Tue Aug 09, 2022 2:23 pm
chorister wrote: ↑Tue Aug 09, 2022 10:24 amIf you really want some sort of objective answer, then read Robert Plomin's
Blueprint. Plomin is one of the world's leading experts on twin studies, and
Blueprint is serious science written (reasonably) accessibly, teasing out the differences between nature and nurture in developing personality. In summary - it's about 50% genetic, 35% the so-called 'unshared environment' (ie stuff that happens to you) and 15% the 'shared environment' - parenting, education etc. It doesn't mean that anyone is predestined, but it does mean that it may not be worth worrying too much. And if it sounds unlikely that genetics is that important, then ask yourself why almost every society prohibits in-breeding.
Er, right.
The following tends much more towards pure anecdote than academic study but I quite enjoyed reading this a few weeks ago in one of the Sunday Times supplements.
The explorer Ed Stafford is a successful chap, e.g. can earn the thick end of £20k for doing a 30-minute talk, lives in Grade II listed Grange, came through Sandhurst and before that private school, etc after being adopted as a baby by a [only modestly] well-heeled couple. In the short interview below he mentions how his biological parents decided, in their teens, that they were too young to keep him, but that they stayed together, and even went on to have two more boys together. One of these two younger siblings of Stafford's is now a mechanic, the other a carpenter. Stafford is gracious enough to freely acknowledge the likely impact of his schooling etc.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ed-s ... -s7dvttnlj
Obviously most kids who go to private school are from well-heeled families. Most kids who go to state schools are not. The kids of well-heeled families obviously go on to do better than average, mostly, I suspect, for reasons that have little to do with genetics. Something that's not well understood, and that doesn't IMO get much attention, is the incremental benefit of attending private school for the children of well-heeled families, who with or without the school would anyway have lots of cultural/social capital etc.
[quote=chorister post_id=280587 time=1660037058 user_id=41378]If you really want some sort of objective answer, then read Robert Plomin's [i]Blueprint[/i]. Plomin is one of the world's leading experts on twin studies, and [i]Blueprint[/i] is serious science written (reasonably) accessibly, teasing out the differences between nature and nurture in developing personality. In summary - it's about 50% genetic, 35% the so-called 'unshared environment' (ie stuff that happens to you) and 15% the 'shared environment' - parenting, education etc. It doesn't mean that anyone is predestined, but it does mean that it may not be worth worrying too much. And if it sounds unlikely that genetics is that important, then ask yourself why almost every society prohibits in-breeding.[/quote]
Er, right.
The following tends much more towards pure anecdote than academic study but I quite enjoyed reading this a few weeks ago in one of the Sunday Times supplements.
The explorer Ed Stafford is a successful chap, e.g. can earn the thick end of £20k for doing a 30-minute talk, lives in Grade II listed Grange, came through Sandhurst and before that private school, etc after being adopted as a baby by a [only modestly] well-heeled couple. In the short interview below he mentions how his biological parents decided, in their teens, that they were too young to keep him, but that they stayed together, and even went on to have two more boys together. One of these two younger siblings of Stafford's is now a mechanic, the other a carpenter. Stafford is gracious enough to freely acknowledge the likely impact of his schooling etc.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ed-stafford-i-wasnt-paid-to-walk-the-amazon-but-i-got-18k-to-tell-bad-jokes-s7dvttnlj
Obviously most kids who go to private school are from well-heeled families. Most kids who go to state schools are not. The kids of well-heeled families obviously go on to do better than average, mostly, I suspect, for reasons that have little to do with genetics. Something that's not well understood, and that doesn't IMO get much attention, is the incremental benefit of attending private school for the children of well-heeled families, who with or without the school would anyway have lots of cultural/social capital etc.
