Soon after the death of Morrie’s mother, his father marries again. Morrie’s stepmother made a huge impact on the childhood development of Morrie. In fact I would say that Morrie’s stepmother had a lot to do with why Morrie was such a great teacher and was able to deal with the idea of death a lot differently than most people. Morrie’s stepmother began to encourage his cognitive development at a young age. She believed that this was the key to make sure he did not stay in poverty his whole life. She would push him very hard in school and would accept nothing less than perfection. This was very important in Morrie’s development because he was in Erikson’s industry versus inferiority stage of development. Without her help, he could have developed