How does social background affect a child's prospects in life- by Jonny Liang

People born in different circumstances have various social backgrounds. Some people argue that social background has a remarkable effect on a child's prospects in life. For instance, wealthy parents, a high social status and a privileged education can dramatically influence a child's future development. In my opinion, I think it should be understood more completely that social background has an impact on a child to a large degree. In the next paragraph I will provide more details.

Firstly, social backgrounds give children their experience. That means, a child grows up in the environment which is determined by his or her social background. Take Bill Gates, the former CEO of Microsoft as an example. He was born into an IT family and his mother was a manager at IBM. Therefore, he had ample opportunity to practice computer programming before he established his company. Furthermore, he received his first order thanks to his mother. Suppose Bill Gates was born into a poor family, he wouldn't have had the chance to be exposed to computing early owning to the prohibitively high price of the hardware at that time so he would not have been able to show his talent when he was a child. Besides, without the influence and support of his mother, he would not have found his clients easily because of the lack of business contacts. In fact, all these factors were given by his social background. There are also many other examples and we can see how they influence a child considerably.

Secondly, social backgrounds give children their knowledge and form their value systems. A perfect student group called Skeleton at Yale University, is a perfect example. All the members come from rich or powerful families. Those young people get together and exchange knowledge regularly. By communicating, they form their own methodology so that their value system will becomes fully established. When they grow up, the majority of them become the elite in different occupations in America.

However, I will not go so far as to say that social background can determine a child's whole life because it is clear that the individual's endeavour is also crucial. We cannot change our social backgrounds when we are children, but we are able to change them when we grow up.