{"id":43059,"date":"2023-12-15T01:33:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-15T09:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=43059"},"modified":"2023-12-14T19:53:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T03:53:24","slug":"writing-in-praise-of-neoteny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2023\/12\/15\/writing-in-praise-of-neoteny\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing in praise of neoteny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Campers being silly at Rockbrook Camp for Girls. (photo from rockbrookcamp.com<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n

Today, the word of the day is\u00a0neoteny. It\u2019s really a term from evolutionary biology, but it describes the retention of childlike attributes in adults. You might think of a grown-up who has a \u201cbaby face,\u201d or is generally \u201ccute.\u201d When you are talking about these kinds of physical features, we tend to think it\u2019s a good thing to have \u201cyoung looking skin\u201d or the \u201cenergy of youth,\u201d for example.\u00a0Neotenic\u00a0people are usually attractive. Being\u00a0neotenous\u00a0is mostly considered a good thing.<\/p>\n

But what about personality traits, attitudes or approaches to the world? What about these ways of being childlike? Think about what life is like as a child. The world is magical, full of curiosities, almost always kind and wondrous. As kids, we spend so much time being creative and playing. We\u00a0feel\u00a0<\/i>so many more things \u2013 joy, excitement, anticipation, and the broad sensuous world around us. All of this probably makes it so easy to make friends (\u201cCome on! Let\u2019s play!\u201d).<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve also noticed what usually happens when we grow up. We get serious, we latch on to patterns of behaviour, we get scared, we feel the need to protect what we believe, we accept responsibilities and feel pressure to perform and \u201cbe\u201d someone in particular. As adults, we spend almost all of our time, mostly alone, working to stay organized and fighting opposing forces. We\u2019re all too consumed by those adult things we\u2019ve grown to accept as important, and it ain\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
(photo from rockbrookcamp.com)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s no surprise to see that being an adult overpowers those childlike traits. Sadly, to grow up often means losing touch with what we used to be, those aspects of being human we loved as kids. As adults, we have a harder time feeling what makes the world wonderful, a harder time making friends, and a much harder time playing and having fun. Of course, there are exceptions to this, but that\u2019s the point. They are exceptions. And that\u2019s too bad.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s remember the value of being childlike even as adults.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be joyful as we\u2019re responsible.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be curious when encountering opposing beliefs.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be friendly and playful, cooperative and excited about learning new things.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s strive to foster our innate neotenous instincts.<\/p>\n

Bringing this back to camp.\u2026 Summer camp is a place where kids can really be kids. It\u2019s a special time when they are encouraged to play, make friends, be creative and explore the world around them. Separate from the forces of home and school (which are fundamentally about forming \u201cadults\u201d), camp provides a wonderful opportunity to strengthen our \u201ckid selves.\u201d It celebrates and fosters the neotenous traits. Camp is a joyful break from all that training, and that\u2019s a big part of why\u00a0it\u2019s so fun.<\/p>\n

Maybe we could say\u2026. Camp helps you learn how to be a really great kid so that, later in life, you\u2019ll be a really great (happy, satisfied, remarkable) adult.<\/p>\n

Camp\u2019s power to strengthen these \u201ckid traits,\u201d I suspect, will be a big part of that success.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jeff Carter<\/b> is director of Rockbrook Camp for Girls, which is in the western part of North Carolina. For more information, visit rockbrookcamp.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Campers being silly at Rockbrook Camp for Girls. (photo from rockbrookcamp.com) Today, the word of the day is\u00a0neoteny. It\u2019s really a term from evolutionary biology, but it describes the retention of childlike attributes in adults. You might think of a grown-up who has a \u201cbaby face,\u201d or is generally \u201ccute.\u201d When you are talking about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3076,8302,22854,22852,6153,3753],"class_list":["post-43059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-op-ed","tag-education","tag-lifestyle","tag-neoteny","tag-rockbrook-camp-for-girls","tag-summer-camp","tag-youth"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}