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Marshall Rotella
RWW9, Class 8
Ms. Bartz
April 7, 2016
Who are you?
Where one grows up is no doubt a part of who they are. The things that they see
and experience become part of their identity because whats going on around them is
being subconsciously programed into their brain. For example, I have a lot of friends
who grew up in neighborhoods different than mine. They thought, spoke, walked, and
acted differently than me because they grew up seeing those things and thats how they
learned to carry themselves. Others might say that the people an individual hangs out
with and surround themselves with create their identity, but this isn't true. People can
choose who they surround themselves with and cant necessarily choose the
neighborhood they grow up in. The biggest contributing factor to creating an identity is
the neighborhood that an individual grew up in.
The social structures of a given community morph an individuals behavior
patterns and how they think. When someone is growing up, they watch how others act
in situations and subconsciously learn from how that person reacted. They also hear
what people talk about and then can form an opinion either for or against the topic of
conversation. In an article written by Nahid Kabir and Tony Rickards, Students at risk:
can connections make a difference?, they talk about how neighborhoods make a
difference in the development of people. They argue that much of the distress
experienced by migrants and other acculturating communities has less to do with

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change per se and more to do with the political and economic structures which
constrain individual and community attempts to construct meaningful and rewarding
social environments. Both the social and economic values of the community you live in
are important to your identity because they represent who you are and what you
resonate with. For example, if an individual grew up paycheck to paycheck, they might
not spend a lot of money when they get older and save more of it. Socially, if a situation
that requires a reaction occurs, the individual will react in the way that they were
subconsciously taught to handle that situation based on the things that that individual
has seen in their environment (neighborhood). The article proceeds to give an example
about what the outcome would be if someone who wears a hijab was placed in a
community where it wasnt normal, there would be a lot of peer pressure for the
individual to change their ways to fit in and appear normal. While there may be peer
pressure to become what the normal is, if someone has been raised and taught a
specific way, they wont easily change; especially if there are others in that community
that share the same ideals as them. Nahid Kabir and Tony Rickards, two researchers
from the University of South Australia, say this is because Acculturation is the sharing
of cultural features which occurs when different cultural groups come into sustained
first-hand contact. The original cultural patterns of either or both groups may be
changed a little, but the groups remain distinct overall. These two different groups of
people found comfort in that ways that they know. While little things might change
because of being in a new area, the two groups remained distinct because their
identity was with that culture and the neighborhood they came from. For example, if
someone grew up in a poor neighborhood where it wasnt as safe to leave the house

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past 9:00 PM and they moved to an area that had more of an open community where
things were better. They might go out, but they wont go out as much as the people who
have lived in that community all their lives. The people who didnt leave their house at
night created habits and thought patterns that are part of their identity.
The economic structure of a neighborhood reflects on the school systems which
in turn, challenge an individual's ability to think. The way an individual thinks is part of
their identity and the school's ability to challenge a childs development and make them
thinkers reflects in their identity. In another article written by Charles Jones and Jing
Shen, two economists from stanford and Lethbridge, called Neighborhood social
capital, neighborhood disadvantage, and change of neighborhood as predictors of
school readiness, they delve into the academic behaviors of individuals that live in
impoverished neighborhoods and how they are different from those who live in wealthier
areas. They claim that A neighborhood's economic status is highly correlated with the
quality of local schools, which should affect children's educational attainment once they
are in the school system. Cognitive development prior to starting school is influenced by
both household and neighborhood factors or social cohesiveness [6-10]. This social
cohesiveness plays a key role in who people become because of the social capital of a
given neighborhood. From both an academic and developmental standpoint, the
surroundings that an individual grows up in shape that individual into whom they are by
influencing them with certain characteristics that are popular in that neighborhood. The
cognitive development is key to thinking and creating identity because the process of
creating an identity is simply based on the ability to think. The education that is provided
by certain schools depends on the quality of the school system. In neighborhoods that

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aren't economically stable, the schools quality of education reflects that. The ability to
challenge a student's thought process is something that is key to creating their identity.
If a school cant do that, then the student will not fully develop their brain to the best of
their potential. They say that A well-established body of scholarship shows that
household poverty has long-term detrimental effects on children and adolescents. The
poor quality of schools is not a temporary thing. When the teachers and the staff do not
have the proper resources to teach and help develop the individuals brain, the student
does not perform to the best of their abilities and that lasts past schooling. The economy
of a neighborhood plays a role in someones identity.
Others may argue that family is the biggest contributing factor in creating an
identity. However, this is not true because when children are growing up, they go to
school and return back to their home where they see their family for a shorter period of
time. They go to school, then go back to their neighborhood and do their homework or
play a sport or something. Without our neighborhoods, we wouldnt be who we are
today.
Neighborhoods are the biggest contributing factor in creating an identity. The
social structures morph an individual into the way they think which is unique to them.
The school systems in a given area can influence the student to be an independent
thinker which will morph or change their identity. When parents choose to have a child,
they should heavily consider where they want them to grow up. The place that they
grow up will become a part of them. It will become part of their identity.

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Works Cited
Jones, Charles, and Jing Shen. "Neighborhood social capital, neighborhood
disadvantage, and change of neighborhood as predictors of school readiness."
Urban Studies Research (2014).Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 8 Apr. 2016
Kabir, Nahid, and Tony Rickards. "Students at risk: can connections make a difference?"

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Youth Studies Australia Dec. 2006: 17+. General OneFile. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.