Animals have devised a period of dependence and apprenticeship for their immature offspring called childhood. That strategy is meant to improve the fitness of the next generation but is expensive in time and effort. Most animals, for example dumb mollusks, and all plants too, take an opposite and equally efficient approach in producing in large numbers that, despite relatively high mortality in sending ill-prepared offspring into the cruel world, count on the most resilient to pass on genetic information. Many animals like insects reproduce in swarms with no parental supervision, their independent young having to fend for themselves from birth. Other animals bear young that are so immature as to appear almost fetal, the best example being marsupials where moms take care of extrauterine fetuses removing them from their little pouch for suckling, then put them back. Thus we see wide variation of investment in the next generation among organisms.

Anthropologists  have remarked in comparison with other primates, how immature are human newborns, with their foreshortened face, big eyes, large forehead which makes them cute. This persistence of immaturity is called neoteny. Humans have by far the most extended period of childhood compared with other primates. An extended childhood corresponds to a longer period of training with family, and the result is that over a longer time, more complex social mores  and all manner of learning can be undertaken. Quite a bit more effort is invested in each child which is why a child’s death is so devastating. Extended youth also correlates with extended life into old age common in human populations, a so-called grandmother effect in which humans survive, unlike almost all other species,  far past their reproductive age, into dotage.  Before recent methods of writing and record keeping,  the printing press and the computer, cultural knowledge, its history, mores, myths, lay inside the heads of the wise elderly.

Modern life and medicine have magnified the investment of parents in their offspring. Medicine has cut infant mortality to near zero on many places and in modern democracies, couples reproduce at levels less than their replacement rate. So much hope his placed in every single child. In our societies are two classes of people, those who do and those who don’t invest in their children. This is a dichotomy that reflects the animal kingdom. It is decidedly not true that all children are created equal. Too many are sent into the world with little preparation and for the most part they have little to offer. The privileged (here I do not mean financially privileged) are better prepared to deal with abstract and complex issues in modern society. In the Bible we find neat myths about unimportant children being born all over while the desired child, often the youngest, when he or she finally gets born, is worth the wait. The strong will of a child, carefully prepared will literally change the world. I was reminded of this in the new biography of Winston Churchill by Boris Johnson. Personally I am attracted much more by the notion that men make history, not that history makes men. Of course both statements are true, but in particular instances, a strong will can change everything, something worth emphasizing.

As we pass our genes down to our children we pass down ideas as well, which is best done with an open immature mind. In advanced insect societies such as hymenoptera, ants, bees and wasps, behavioral patterns are almost entirely genetic. There may be some learning for the genetically prepared bee as with the waggle dance. But humans pass down both genes and memes.  It has often been observed that human intelligence and societal complexity owes to the extension of childhood. All animals are born in a more or less immature state. The more babyish or embryological they are in their appearance with big head and eyes and unmyelinated immature type movements and lack of ability to communicate, the cuter they are and more attention they receive from adoring parents. Childhood may be defined with inability to deal independently with the world with the expectation that further training will lead to independence and success. The extension of childhood allows for the a longer apprenticeship, even more, the acquisition of complex and specialized skills required for the function of an advanced society, things like reading, learning technology, and passing down myths and art. The society that trains its children will be better able through increased cohesion and other forms of preparedness, to compete with adversaries and survive.  If not that, the properly trained person will survive on his own.  The hope is that this extended period of investment will pay off with a more efficient way of handling the exigencies of the world.  Our less advanced students stop in elementary school, while our leaders will continue their dependence out into their third decade of life, gaining a college education and advanced degrees.

As I have admitted, I am far from my childhood. But I yearn to call back many of the features and attitudes I had as a child. Best of all is the enthusiasm, the open hungry mind, not afraid to ask every question, arms out and open for both knowledge and affection. I am hoping, I guess, to be reincarnated into my body.