Nature Vs Nurture

Up until this point I had always thought that certain traits were genetic and not trained. Being born with instincts and emotions, our surroundings later influence and control how we behave and who we are. I always knew from the start that we would always pick up certain personality traits from our parents such as stubbornness, but I never knew that they could influence a certain person even further. In the article we're reading, it talks about a group of mentally retarded "dubbed" infants that no one wanted to adopt that were placed in special care with special attention. At that point all the infants were about 19 months old and placed with a single woman that gave it intense one on one attention for all its needs, physically and mentally. After a couple years they retested the IQ of the group and found out that they had gained an average of about 28 IQ points compared to a group that recieved no care. With future tests they discovered that most of the group with care continued to live normal lives while most of the group without care struggled in life.
That's just crazy, not only did the love and attention of the women shape the babies personality and character, but also their intellectual and social well being. The nurture seemed to have a greater influence than nature.
In a way I can see that in my life. As of now, between my brother and I, I'm the smart one, he's the athletic one. As a little kid my mom would always make me read and do extra work just so that I could stay ahead of my class and do well in school. I always had to do these stupid math booklets instead of play outside with friends. As a result, I always got As, I always did really well in school and when I did get B's my mom would ground me. It was ridiculously intense. When it came to my brother, my mom didn't try as hard. She had started working so she wasn't always around to make sure he did the extra work that she set out for him. She never punished him as severely and always kind of just let him slide when it came to academics. As a result, hes a B/C student. I'm not blaming the brothers bad grades on my mom, but it does show that nurture really does matter in the long run. We're both from the same parents, heck, we even look alike if we compared a picture of me at the same age to him. It's just that he didn't recieve as much attention in school, and therefore does not do as well.
On the flipside, when I was growing up I had no influence in athletics. My dad was horribly inept at anything to do with a ball, so his efforts to try to help me always resulted me me helping him. I never had that influence that coached me and helped me through baseball, and as a result, I wasn't great, or even good might I say. However, when it came to my brother, I was there to help him every step of the way. Constantly correcting his stance, his swing, his throw, and his reactions, he eventually developed to be a much better baseball player than I was at his age. He is always considered to be one of the best on his team, while I was always one of the worst. Goes to show what a little nurturing does huh?