Re: Nurture over nature

Posted by R. Berg on November 16, 2001

In Reply to: "Give me your child until he is 9 and he will be mine for life". posted by Bruce Kahl on November 15, 2001

: : Who said "Give me your child until he is 9 and he will be mine for life".

: I googled your phrase in all sorts of combinations and found many different sources:

: communism
: Jesuits
: some religion
: "a wise pope"
: a bishop

: In other words, I found nothing except a whole bunch of maybes.

The behaviorist psychologist John B. Watson said something like that:

"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant, chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. There is no such thing as an inheritance of capacity, talent, temperament, mental constitution, and behavioral characteristics" ["Behaviorism," New York: Norton, 1925].