Beloit College -- Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College
Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones that shape
the lives of students entering college each fall. It was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated
references, but it quickly became an internationally monitored catalog of
the changing worldview of each new college generation.
For this generation of entering college students, born in 1994, Kurt
Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon and John Wayne Gacy
have always been dead.
Here's a sample from the full list of 75 items:
9. They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
13. They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
20. Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe
malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
27. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for
“phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their
tablets and smart phone screens.
47. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book.
71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the
independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during
their lifetimes.
38.Slavery has always been unconstitutional in Mississippi, and Southern Baptists have always been apologizing for supporting it in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe inclusion of this point implies, of course, that slavery and racial hatred were unique to the Deep South. No doubt that is being taught in history classes.
Most Northerners ignore that slavery existed at some point in just about every state in the union. Pennsylvania did not abolish slavery until 1840. Some Connecticut landowners had slaves until 1848. Delaware and Maryland had not abolished slavery at the outset of the Civil War.
Northernors also ignore that in the 20th century the KKK was very strong throughout the Midwest and active in many northern cities. 30% of Indiana's male white population were KKK members in the 1920s and 1930s.
#41. "41.Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers."
ReplyDeleteCowbell players have not been displaced and the best are dealing with more women then ever. :>)
The slavery thing: To this class, and, in fact to their parents and grandparents, native Americans have always been residents of reservations.
ReplyDeleteConsuming processed foods is bad for you (other than milk, of course).
ReplyDelete35. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends.
ReplyDeleteWhat's "tribal" about hanging around with people of your own generation? Another great example of the misperception of the tribe and how it operates.
Hmmm, yet another raging example of how tax dollars extorted for education is money well wasted...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this sort of abysmal ignorance is also apparent in kids that were in private school or home schooled?
Maybe there should be a #76: 'what's a paycheck?'...