Sunday, 3 September 2023

Crying Northestern kid

 

'Crying Northwestern Kid' used his meme to get into college (upworthy.com)
 
In 2017, John Phillips was 12 years old and living in America. He was caught on camera  while at a game of his football team the Northwestern Wildcats.  During the game, the referee made a call in favour of the opposing team and John’s rection happened to be caught on camera. You can see the footage in this link on youtube (Note: I’m not sure what the word is he mouths near the start… )
 Crying Northwestern Kid After Refs Screw Northwestern With Terrible Call and Technical - YouTube
 
John’s reaction was reported on sports media at the time and very quickly the footage was everywhere. The footage and John became known as “Crying Northwestern kid”
 
 Here is a short interview with John speaking this year about this meme 'Crying Northwestern kid' reflects on viral March Madness moment - YouTube
 
John says at the time his friends were telling him to stay of social media, and he did do that. But over time he learned to accept it and turn it in to something that was unique about him. His year John write about the meme in an application letter to Harvard, one of the top American universities, and he was accepted.
 
John said in his essay that he has learned to love and protect the side of him that is enthusiastic, even if it does sometimes lead to embarrassment; “But today I am proud to be that crying kid with shining braces, exposed rubber bands and thickly gelled hair. Every day I choose to be that kid – for his lively spirit, infectious enthusiasm and compassionate understanding.”

-What is a meme? ( it’s an image, video or piece of text that is shared widely across the internet, often carrying a humorous message. )
- How do you think John felt about the meme back when he was 12 years old? Imagine going to school the next day, what do you think it was like for John?
- Why didn’t John just stop the meme?
- what does this show us about the internet today?
- Why were John’s friends telling him to stay off the internet at the time? What does that show about Johns friends?
- John has ‘learned to love and protect the side of him that is enthusiastic, even if it does sometimes lead to embarrassment’ what does that mean?
- “today I am proud to be that crying kid” How can John be so proud of something so embarrassing (the aim of this question is to get children challenging the assertion that it’s embarrassing)
- “Every day I choose to be that kid – for his lively spirit, infectious enthusiasm and compassionate understanding.” Can you choose to be someone? What does John mean here?
- Harvard is an incredibly prestigious university; why do you think they chose John out of thousands of applicants?
- What can we learn from John as we begin our new school year? 


www.no-outsiders,com

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