Nature vs Nurture

The nature vs nurture debate abounds, but maybe more so for adopted children. Last week I held my first after school SAT prep as part of one of the many new initiatives. There were 15 students and 10 of them are Asian. I compliment one of the boys on his advanced explanation and a girl commented on how that never happens in their English class. She said it was his "Asian skills" that make him a better math student than an English student.

It was at this point that we started to talk about our future child. Some of the kids already knew that Frig and I are in the process of adopting a child from Korea, but not all of them did. They reacted very positively to the fact that we are adopting an Asian (Asian pride is a big deal with this group of kids). We talked about how much of their academic skills are because of nature (genes) and how much of it is do to nurture (the way they parents raise them). They agreed that the way they are raised, the high expectations and levels of accountability that their parents have for them, plays a part in their academic success.

It was a very interesting conversation and nice diversion from the 2 hours of math after a full day of school.

Also, one of the boys in the SAT program had known for sometime that we are trying to adopt from Korea and that I hope to learn some Korean before our child comes home. He shared this with his mom and she has offered to teach me. I plan on taking her up on her offer once we have our referral. Maybe she will also teach me how to cook a few Korean dishes!