The article, In This Time of Panic, We Look to Generation X for Inspiration (Chelsea Steiner — themarysue.com), took us back through the 1970s and 1980s, when some of us we were latchkey children, when no one was home when we arrived home.
With more time spent by ourselves than with parental figures, we took care of ourselves the best we could, albeit with the help of father figures like Mr. Drummond from Different Strokes and mother figure Louise Jefferson from The Jeffersons.
The article was part sociological inquiry into this very generation of parents, and part benediction for being resourceful, creative children who social distanced not out of necessity but out of circumstance. It was a clarion validation of this generation’s unwanted experiences.
In the article, we learned what we already knew — that those best equipped to lead in this crisis are the very soldiers on the ground now. “It is no surprise then, that the kids who were left to entertain themselves for hours on end, are now the adults best equipped to thrive during COVID-19.” In the article, we met the heroes and they are us: parents, skulking through grocery store aisles, fending for their family, but best equipped to entertain and teach the kids knowledge, wisdom, and how to beat Bald Bull in Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!
We are the best equipped because we made our own snacks when we came home. We built couch forts — a necessary experience for building cityscapes and alien worlds all inside the confines of our house. We have used that experience to provide enriching learning experiences while social distancing.
Like a treasure map taking the Goonies’ in search of One-Eyed Willy’s fortunes, what follows are online resources that can captivate, enthrall, and turn our living room into a place of magic.
Who does not remember that oddly serious and moving scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, where the three truants walk through the Art Institute of Chicago? Well, 2020 is in an amazing age, one where Ferris Bueller would not have had to leave his house to go to art museums like that.
What am I talking about? From the comfort of your COVID-free home, you can visit, virtually, museums from London to Seoul. Over 2,500 museums are offering you and your family a chance to spend a Sunday Afternoon in the very Art Institute of Chicago, or a Starry Night wandering the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
What else can you do at home? What about building a nice couch DeLorean and travel to famous historic sites? Fly inside the Church of St. Sophia, touring through its important timelines as a religious site periodically built, destroyed, and rebuilt over and over by Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires. And if you are stuck in a one-story house, get in your steps at Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase through Google’s street view.
Self Development Academies are also big fans of Testing Mom, a resource devoted to providing gifted and talented testing preparation in extremely fun ways. We find ourselves answering the questions as adults because they tickle that part of us that loves, not only tricky puzzles, but also the bright colors of the 1980s.
With the President recommending gatherings numbering no more than 10, restaurants closing, and our own Department of Education closing our schools for at least two weeks, it is time we stop, collaborate, and listen. These online resources are creative ways of entertaining and informing our own family, not just keeping them busy, but enriching who they are.
Each generation must endure slight scarring. But with just enough pressure and just enough time, those scars turn into wisdom. This is the gift each generation gives to the next — diamonds. Scars, under pressure and time, create diamonds.
For more information about programs at Self Development Academy, and the location of each of the four campuses, please call (480) 641-2640.