Each August Beloit College (Beloit, Wis) compiles a "mindset" list that is distributed to teachers as a reminder that incoming freshmen don't have the same references as instructors, that they have been born into and grown up in a different world. Most of this year's freshman class was born in 1987. Starbucks, voicemail, and Bill Gates have always been around. They have no memories of long drives in the back of the family station wagon; our family traveled in one, a Uhaul in tow, when we moved back to Wisconsin from Colorado long, long ago. This list never fails to make one feel "old," but it's also interesting to see what is included.
Most students entering college this fall were born in 1987.
1. Andy Warhol, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, and Lee Marvin have always been dead.
2. They don't remember when "cut and paste" involved scissors.
3. Heart-lung transplants have always been possible.
4. Wayne Gretzky never played for Edmonton.
5. Boston has been working on the "The Big Dig" all their lives.
6. With little need to practice, most of them do not know how to tie a tie.
7. Pay-Per-View television has always been an option.
8. They never had the fun of being thrown into the back of a station wagon with six others.
9. Iran and Iraq have never been at war with each other.
10. They are more familiar with Greg Gumbel than with Bryant Gumbel.
Read the rest
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
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