“The Glass Castle” Writing Assignment #7 Jeannette Walls was deeply impacted by both the inadequate living conditions and the rich intellectual world provided by her family in her childhood. Having a safe and healthy living situation as well as a cognitively stimulating environment are vital to a child’s development, and a balance of both would likely be the most beneficial. However, most children do not grow up with the luxury of a perfectly balanced childhood, raising the question, are stable living conditions or a rich intellectual environment more important to childhood development? I believe Jeannette Walls’ experiences in “The Glass Castle” perfectly exemplified the importance a bountiful intellectual world plays in the development of …show more content…
A stimulating cognitive environment helps a child develop passions and talents, a deeply important piece in facing adversity such as an unfit living situation. A life without passion leaves people unmotivated to create a better life for themselves, lacking the desire to chase goals and continue on a journey of curiosity. Jeannette created her future for herself through her own self-sufficiency learned growing up in the conditions she faced, as well as her talents and skills. Her home life gave her even more a desire to participate in activities and actively exercise her mind, allowing her to find an area in which she thrived and thus created a future for herself off of. It is important that developing youth be exposed to many different forms of intellectual stimulus as they grow up in order to help them create a path for themselves and find what they are meant to be following. Jeannette’s understanding and love of deeper and more complex ideas of the world gave her the endurance to thrive in adulthood, despite her troubling