If you are any kind of a baseball fan, you know exactly who this is and his story. When my son found this card in a random mixed pack, he didn't understand why my wife and reacted the way we did. He's nine and has no clue who Bill Buckner is but he has always shown a desire to learn since he began collecting baseball and basketball cards.
I know this is a dying hobby. I loved collecting cards and I still have them from all those years ago. I've given many to my son to help him get started. It's a lot of fun to watch him open a pack looking for a gem just like I used to. He is however, a typical millennial kid. He can be found giggling with headphones on watching dumb YouTube videos on his iPad. He also plays a couple different MLB games that give him knowledge of the best players in the country. When he watched ESPN with me, he basically knows as much as I do. When I was his age, we didn't have the coverage on TV or the access to the internet the way he does. If I want to learn about distant players, collecting baseball cards was how I did it.
I love telling him old stories of players past because that's how people my age learned of the legends. This is not always the best way to reach him so when this card surfaced we had the revelation to engage in some millennial story telling. We turned our TV to YouTube and did a search of Bill Buckner. The top result was obviously the ground ball but the depth of knowledge on the topic was staggering. It was more than I could ever dream of knowing at that age or what I could have possibly given to him.
Yes, I am the guy who said that we need to be a safety valve for our kid's internet use. But that doesn't mean limit them to avoid any and all danger. I had hoped to convey that we should be models and show them how to consume the internet responsibly. This, in my opinion, was a parenting victory. We used the internet to tell a story that I could not hope to ever convey to him. This is what schools are trying to do. Use the internet to do what a textbook could never do for us. Deep and engaging understanding of concepts, not just memorizing dates and facts is the name of the game now.
As parents it is time we embrace the fact that our kids do not learn how we did. We have to have an open mind when it comes to how our kids consume the internet and information. We have to learn with them no matter how uncomfortable it is. Blowing off the idea of using the internet to learn is just like letting a win slip right through your feet. It's okay to blend the old and the new ways to learn as long as you are engaging your children and inspiring to learn about things in depth. I bet you Bill Buckner never thought he would be a teach-able moment.
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