One hospital simply would deal out babies at random to all new parents, as they stop by the nursery on the way home. They'd count all the smart kids. They'd compare those kids to the parents who bore them and to the parents who raised them. Then they'd do the same for everything from schizophrenia to shyness to career choices. The rest is nurture, she says, but not the kind you'd expect.
Parents have nothing to do with it.
After conceiving and bearing a child, then settling the family in a neighborhood and a school district, a parent's work is basically done. Which is not to say the debate between Harris and her detractors has no implications for parents. Their various research and analyses draw very different conclusions about the relative powers of heredity, parenting and friends to influence each child's future. And those conclusions can be either alarming or reassuring to parents, depending how they look at things. The way children behave when they're out of the house, out among other people.