Why this project and why these certificates exist:We address this to the children and students that the certificate is for: There is much talk about you needing to "catch up" and of the things that some adults think that you have missed during this current pandemic. Yet you, your peers and your parents know that you have had many experiences (not all of them wonderful) that have been very different to the experiences you would have had, in conventional times, at school. It's not just you; the last huge worldwide disruption of children from many nations was World War 2. In the UK it faced children with everything from evacuation to underground shelters, bombing and rationing. Never mind the current lockdown for a few months - many children in WW2 were evacuated away from their families for years! But that disruption gave them much - reslience, ingenuity, responsibility, confidence, creativity, bits of unexpectedly deep knowledge, and more. The value of that is seen in that war-born generation: Vivienne Westwood 1941, John Lennon 1940, Clive Sinclair 1940, David Hockney 1937, Helen Mirren 1945, and so many more. They were a very special generation who did things in rather non standard ways, and who rebuilt the booming post-war world. Your new current Golden CoVID Generation exhibit that same ingenuity & resilience but it's not yet properly recognised. You need to know that you are also a very special, very valuable, wonderful generation. We haven't seen anything like you all for 75 years and we may not see it again for another 75 years. The world (media, politicians, all sorts) seem to be bombarding you daily with catastrophising predictions of your failure and losses (that bombardment must be so hurtful). However, we wanted to remind you that you are our Golden Generation. We have generated this certificate for each of you, to accredit your precious experiences in the pandemic. Social media, and local conversations, are awash with people acclaiming the things that children have done, or have coped with heroically. The certificate is a lovely one to have. It features those myriad activities in a jolly cartoon style, but each activity shown is sourced from comments in social media. It is a real sample of the many things children have been doing. When you look at it, the challenge for adults is how do they keep up with your generation, and celebrate what you have achieved, rather than how can you catch up. Your certificate is generated in English (with a Spanish option soon, too), but other languages will appear as and when we can manage that task. If you click the "go directly..." button above you will be led to a simple form which will result in a PDF file being mailed to you to print in A3 or A4, to laminate and to treasure. Finally, a reminder that thoughout history other children have faced some dreadful disruptions too. We received this Tweet below to remind us. The difference of your Golden Generation is that the pandemic has disrupted so very many of you all at the same time. Worldwide.
You won't just be fine, you'll be amazing. A unique global generation.
prof stephen heppell & tom smith |
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