Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you

with your most important job being a dad. These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy,

by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Is it nature or nurture?

How much of this is nature and how much of it is nurture? Nobody has a really

great answer to that question as far as parenting is concerned. What we know for certain, though,

is that the debate as a whole is a waste of time, because if it was only nature, there'd be no

reason to do anything, or even ponder how we could make our kids' lives better. The good news, unsurprisingly,

is that your efforts as a parent are not futile. Research in recent years has proved the power

of nurture in the development of children. You can read all about that. You just have to Google

for it. But we've known this to be true for much, much longer. Plutarch tells the story of how Lysurgis reformed Spartan society from rebellious,

rowdy, and soft, to self-disciplined, temperate, and courageous.

He bred two dogs from the same litter, one in the home and one out in the hunting fields.

When they were fully acclimated, he brought both dogs to a public assembly. He set down the house dogs' food and then the hunting fields. When they were fully acclimated, he brought both dogs to a public assembly.

He set down the house dog's food and then the hunting dogs. Before he released the dogs, he let loose a

hair. The house dog went to his food, the hunting dog, after the hair. You see, fellow citizens,

he said, these dogs belong to the same stock, but by virtue of the discipline to which

they have been subjected, they have turned out utterly different from each other. And you also see

that training is more effective than nature for good. After this demonstration in the public

assembly proved that nature trump nurture. He said, see also in our case fellow citizens,

noble birth so admired of the multitude and now

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