Weave the Web
Recording Family Legends for Generations to Come
Below are two essays Nicholas wrote for his 7th grade English class about how different generations learn from each other.
Youth Teaching the Older Generations
by Nicholas Ware
Over the past years, many generations have learned from one another. There are many situations in which that can occur. One example would be as new technologies are being developed so quickly in today’s world the older generations often rely on the younger people to help them stay up to date. In my family, my brother and I often teach my grandmother how to do new things on her cellphone or tablet.
Earlier this year my family moved to New Jersey, and my dad was very excited to show us around New York City. We decided to go to the Natural History Museum. My dad and I took great pictures, but since my dad had just gotten a new phone he did not know how to restore his older conversation from WhatsApp on to his phone.​
We were at the brontosaurus exhibit and my dad wanted to send a picture to our family back in Brazil.
“Uh oh,” says my dad. “Nick, how do I get my conversations back?”
“Well it’s simple,” I said. “Under the settings tab there is a backup button, you click that and it will download your older conversations.” I had soon walked him through the steps and taught my dad how to back up the conversations.
Another example of a younger generation teaching an older generation how to use technology is how my father taught my grandfather how to set up and configure the WIFI at his apartment in São Paulo. One interesting fact about buildings in São Paulo is that they are made of concrete. The result of this construction style is that the WIFI has trouble getting to all the rooms, therefore, WIFI repeaters are really important. When my dad and my grandfather used to talk outside on the porch they had no internet.
“Hey Arthur can you check the score of the Brazil game” asked my grandfather.
“I can’t” says my dad, “the internet is too slow”.
“We are going to have to do something about that,” said my grandfather. The next day my dad set up and configured WIFI repeater at my grandfather’s apartment and taught him how to maintain the router, and keep the WIFI working.
Another example of when a younger generation taught an older one how to use technology, is when my brothers and I teach my grandma how to download apps or search for things on her iPad.
“Kids, how do I get Candy Crush on here?” said my grandma.
“it’s really simple” we said, so we walked her through the steps and taught her how to download apps and go on to Google.
Nick with Vova
You can see from these examples, that technology has developed so quickly that older generations often need help from younger generations to understand how things work. Whether it is my dad helping my grandfather, or my brothers and I helping my grandmother, there is a lot of ways in which younger people help older people stay up to date. We often hear how important it is for the older generation to pass on information to the younger generation, it is good that it happens the other way around too. Sometime in the future it may be my generation learning from the younger generations how to use new technology as well.
Writing this essay and going through the selections in this unit has given me an understanding that is not just the older generation teaching the younger generation, it is also that I can help someone way older than myself. Mothers can teach their sons never to give up. Grandkids can teach their grandmothers about technology. It does not matter what your age is, you can always learn from another generation.
Keeping Score
by Nicholas Ware
Anyone can learn from another generation. Just like it happened to me, and I am going to tell you the story of how it happened.
Let me tell you about my family. My brothers and I have lived outside the country all our lives and have never seen a baseball game. Living in Brazil where soccer is a huge sport, we barely know how to play baseball. On the other hand, my uncle and grandmother on my father’s side, love baseball. They are both huge Yankees fans. Just to give you an idea of how much she loves baseball, my grandmother keeps a Mickey Mantle card in her wallet, and has a hat signed by a few baseball players.
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My uncle has been involved with sports all his life. He broke his hand playing football. When he heard we were coming to the United States he was so excited, he bought us Yankees shirts, hats, and other stuff.
As we entered, and gave our tickets, we got a 1977 21st Yankees world championship commemorative ring. It was gold with fake diamonds and the Yankees symbol on it. We sat down, got some snacks and started watching the game.
One day in September, my brothers, my grandmother, my uncle, and I decided to go to a Yankees game. My dad and mom drove us to Manhattan to meet up with my uncle, because that is where he lives, and dropped us off. From there we went by subway to the stadium, I was really excited, it was my first baseball game and it was ring day. We get to the stadium and it is huge, Yankees fans everywhere, a lot of excitement and the words “Yankee Stadium” in gold at the top.
My grandmother pulls out a sheet of paper with boxes and rows, and she said “when I was your age I learned how to keep score at a Yankees game with my father, now I’m going to teach you.”
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Here is how you keep score: it is a sheet of paper with two sides, one for each team, it has 9 columns for the innings and 10 rows for the players. Each player has his own number which represents his position on the field. Every batter has a box which captures what happened on the field. If this sounds complicated, believe me it is. Let me give you an example, if a batter hits the ball and the third baseman catches it, throws it to first baseman and gets the batter out, you would write down “five / three” with a circle around it, 5 for third baseman who threw the ball, 3 for first baseman who caught it, and the circle around it because the runner is out. The results of every at bat are supposed to recorded on this paper. Strike outs are marked as a “K”, strike out where the batter didn’t swing are recorded as a backwards “K.”
Nick, Matthew and NanNan dressed like "The Judge" at the ballgame.
And the Yankees lost 6 to 4. And all the batters where recorded on my grandmother’s score sheet. Now a days everyone is on their cellphones and barely pay attention to the game, and I think that with the score sheet it gets people to pay attention to what is happening on the field.
