ion students learn about many subjects and are faced with many challenges and experiences. These events will begin to shape them into the individuals that they will become. One’s social relationships, or types of people whom one associates with in life, also help to shape his entire being. Positive and negative experiences resulting from the effects of these associations or relationships (or therein the ratio between the two) can affect or alter whether one becomes a “good” or “bad” person, timid or bold, confident or diffident, or even successful... or not. But what, how, and why do different types of people affect and indeed shape a child’s intellect? There is no real answer in this, perhaps because the minds of any two given children, or anyone, are never the same and therefore cannot be collectively absolute. First, different types of people (as in character, not social stature) provide different types of role models. If a responsible person is raising a child, it is likely that the child will naturally learn that trait or quality. Joyce Carol Oates, author of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” writes about a fifteen year old girl named Connie who was affected by her mother’s personality, which she considered to be trivial. Her mother was once a beautiful woman. She, like Connie, gave priority to her appearance. But now she scolds Connie for doing the same and Connie can’t understand this. Instead, her mother praises Connie’s sister, who is a sore sight but a good, responsible daughter. Connie’s mother created a conflict for her in trying to understand her own priorities. Connie gave to her appearance the same importance that her mother once did. She was not however, responsible like her sister, and so she was less liked by her mother. She found herself asking the question of whether she wanted attention (from men) through appearance, o...
