year. Forget that: Its all genetics!" But Harriss theory was duly endorsed by a slate of heavyweights. Among them was Steven Pinker, the cognitive psychologist and best- selling author, who in his own book Blank Slate called Harriss views "mind-boggling" (in a good way). "Patients in traditional forms of psychotherapy while away their fifty minutes reliving childhood con- flicts and learning to blame their unhappiness on how their parents treated them," Pinker wrote. "Many biographies scavenge through the subjects childhood for the roots of the grown-ups tragedies and triumphs. Parenting experts make women feel like ogres if they slip out of the house to work or skip a reading of Goodnight Moon. All these deeply held beliefs will have to be rethought." Or will they? Parents must matter, you tell yourself. Besides, even if peers exert so much influence on a child, isnt it the parents who es- sentially choose a childs peers? Isnt that why parents agonize over the right neighborhood, the right school, the right circle of friends? Still, the question of how much parents matter is a good one. It is also terribly complicated. In determining a parents influence, which dimension of the child are we measuring: his personality? his school grades? his moral behavior? his creative abilities? his salary as an adult? And what weight should we assign each of the many inputs that affect a childs outcome: genes, family environment, socioeconomic level, schooling, discrimination, luck, illness, and so on? For the sake of argument, lets consider the story of two boys, one white and one black. The white boy is raised in a Chicago suburb by parents who read   widely and involve themselves in school reform. His father, who has a decent manufacturing job, often takes the boy on nature hikes. His mother is a housewife who will eventually go back to college and earn a bachelors degree in education. The boy is happy and performs very well in school. His teachers think he may be a bona fide math genius. His parents encourage him and are terribly proud when he skips a