Self-deficiency and Self-reliance, diabolical opposites, or are they inseparable partners in growing and learning?

  It's a rare occurrence when I see a crow flying by without a swarm of smaller birds attacking it to chase it away. I can only assume it is being "run off" by the smaller birds due to the crows being a threat to baby birds. The birds chase hawks, buzzards, and even seagulls, it's a matter of ensuring their offspring survive. After emerging from their eggs the chicks reach the size of their parents in two weeks, that's a fast growth rate.

They are needy now, give them a while, they grow fast.

The baby birds stay in the nest for between 9 days (the least) and 16 days (the most), until that time the parents tend to 100% of the needs of the offspring. The birds fledge in 21 days, however, are not on their own for another 14 days, total independence. From the time the chicks hatch until they fly off on their own is 51 days at the most, just under two months.
  On the other end of the spectrum is the larger animals, one of which is the Elephant, one of the largest land mammals on the planet. Elephants have the longest gestation of any land animal, the pregnancy is close to two years, 22 months is the actual amount of time. One baby is produced, being born at 230 pounds (105 kilograms), The babies drink as much as 3 gallons of milk a day, for a period of two years, and sometimes longer. When they reach 4 months, consumption of some plants begins, mimicking their parents, still needing milk from their mothers. The small elephants stay with their mothers 16 years, almost the same as humans if the mother dies there is little that can be done to save the young animals life. (Link to 10 animals with the longest gestation periods.)
  The period's of dependency causes me to wonder if it can more accurately be described as a period of self-deficiency, the opposite of self-reliance. We are born with the inability to care for ourselves in any definition of the word, we as humans are 100% reliant on our mothers for at least 6 years. Human babies are not able to lift their heads for the two months of their lives, and able to roll over at 4 months, sit up at around 6 months and begin to stand up at 9 months taking their first steps around the age of 1 year. That is just the beginning, we have a lot to learn to become self-reliant, a lot to learn. It will take most of 10 years until the human baby is able to function independently in even the most basic tasks. Some mammal babies must be highly functional upon birth, Giraffe's being one, their young immediately get up on their feet and within a short amount of time are able to run. Other animals that are not constantly on the move will raise their young in the nest or some other secure spot.

We have to learn to crawl first of all. 

  So what is this "self-deficiency" that we are born with? It has long been tagged as having been born "self-deficient", or "self-deficiency", the total dependence on other people. We take it for granted when we become parents and have a baby he/she will have to be taken care of for a long period of time, legally 18 years for parents. We expect it and spend plenty of our adult lives tending to their needs, it's our family and for many of us our children are our legacy. What happens when we do get older and we are truly on our own? How much are we really self-reliant, how many people are capable of living on their own with no human interactions in the way of socializing or assisting in day to day life? We can think of crafty ways to perform certain tasks, like loading a heavy object into a vehicle or fixing our meals. How important are interpersonal relationships, can we ever be self-sufficient? It is possible to be self-reliant in most of the obvious areas, raising food, providing shelter for ourselves, keeping entertained and improving our lives. The self-deficiency includes our need for human interaction, we need people to survive, we rely on each other. (Link to definition of self-reliance)
  We need to be taught how to survive, it's a process that continues our entire lives, we have to constantly learn to survive. There are some "natural" tendencies and talents we are somehow born with, artistic abilities, musical, and athletic are three. There is much more we need to be taught, farming, welding, driving a car, and even studying, all learned traits, addressing the self-deficiencies we are born with. We must be taught inter-personal traits as well, how to get along with others, it too is a learned skill. The family structure is geared toward this self-deficiency, the elders teach the younger members of the clan, as well as pass down stories and legends. The phrase "you learn something new every day if you're not careful", is a very accurate statement. If we did not learn our lessons on producing food, keeping clean, and even as basic as what water is safe to drink we would be in dire straights without a dought.

Refusing to learn is not conducive to life.

During the times of human expansion, not only North America, it has occurred at different times throughout the entire world, if migration was not attempted with a number of people, it would surely fail. Humans survive in numbers, two people walking through a deep dark forest during prehistoric times would most likely suffer a disastrous fate, whereas 25 people walking the same path would have a much better chance. Many beginning civilizations have failed even with a large number of people, some of the Viking settlements from Greenland to the New World are good examples. With all the survival skills needed, with enough people to combat the odds of failure, some societies still failed, can it be related to the self-deficiencies we are all born with? I worked for a man who had a unique theory, I have discovered since many people in management positions share the view of "I don't need everyone to know how to do everything, I just need people who are able to instruct others in what they know." On the surface it is fairly accurate, the problem with that reasoning is the people being taught have to have a basic understanding of the tasks at hand. For instance, if a crew is building a house, everyone needs to know how to read a tape measurer, run a skill saw and know a certain amount of "trade" terms for various tasks and items. Without the basic information, the more advanced lessons are at best foggy and only partially understood. (Link to why some colonies failed)
  Equally, if a family begins a "homestead" in a very remote area, many have succeeded many have not, there is not a failure at anything, it's all a learning lesson. If the group is a family, say like 4 children, and two parents, all well versed in the ways of the wild, farming and other self-reliant skills, they may well excel. After establishing a working self-sufficient environment at their farm and all is clicking away nicely after a few years, tragedy strikes, if one or both of the parents are injured or otherwise incapacitated, it may be doomsday for the group if help is not found. Their chances of survival deteriorate daily unless help can be found. That help is in the form of neighbors, friends, and relatives, that is a community and humans need them to survive. It further defines the self-deficiency we are all born with, we have a lot to learn just to survive, the more resources we lose the more we have to learn.
  Some people that have studied the reasons why the human "growing up" situation is so long may be due to our large brain, we are born with little knowledge, our entire life is spent filling it up with information, our most intense learning time is before we are 10 years old. We all, for the most part, recognize our self-deficiency, comments I hear are "I want to return to school and graduate", or "when I grow up I want to be ...", addressing one's own self-deficiency and need for knowledge. Some lessons are hard to learn, sending a young person on a trip in a train is one of them. Our grandkids will visit us by taking a 250-mile train trip through California's central valley, for some reason on their first try they always make a mistake and end up at a train station 50 miles from their intended stop, why does that happen?

This is how we learn, sometimes by making
mistakes. 

I'm not sure at all, normally we coach them, "make sure when the station name is called you get up from your seat, grab your pack and go to the exit door." The message is lost, when I ask why they didn't get off the typical answer is, "they called the station name but when I got to the door we were already moving away." My initial thought is "how does that happen", my second one and the first comment is "well that's how we learn", without exception every grandkid did that on their first solo train trip, they are 16 years old. Yes, that's how we learn, it makes up for our lack of knowledge from birth, self-deficiency, we are all victims.
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jacquesandkate  emergencykitsplus.com