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2015 Beloit College List

I always point to this every year. The Beloit College list has been coming out since 2002, so this is the 14th edition. It aims to present to us (those who experienced other years of graduation) what the mindset or life experience is for the class of underghrads arriving on campus in the next few weeks. “It was originally created as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, and quickly became a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation.” Generally those arriving right after high school are 17 or 18. Yes, it’s true that many of the folks in first few years of university and college are teens. Some take a gap year or two to dsave or travel and mature. Others arrive as so-called ‘mature’ students.

I think this is the first year I’ve seen a video introduction:

Aren’t the spokespeople a hoot? Anyway, it’s always an interesting list to review and debate.

“Members of this year’s freshman class, most of them born in 1993, are the first generation to grow up taking the word “online” for granted and for whom crossing the digital divide has redefined research, original sources and access to information, changing the central experiences and methods in their lives.”

They’ve veen produced a book:
Ron Nief and Tom McBride,
The Mindset Lists of American History: From Typewriters to Text Messages, What Ten Generations of Americans Think Is Normal
(Wiley and Sons.).

Some of my favourites:

The Mindset List for the Class of 2015

Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa, Arthur Ashe and the Commodore 64 have always been dead.

“1.There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.
2.Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.
8.Their school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter.
9.“Don’t touch that dial!”….what dial?
12.Amazon has never been just a river in South America.
19.We have never asked, and they have never had to tell.
25.Video games have always had ratings.
30.Dial-up is soooooooooo last century!
37.Music has always been available via free downloads.
44.They’re the first generation to grow up hearing about the dangerous overuse of antibiotics.
52.Their parents have always been able to create a will and other legal documents online.
53.Charter schools have always been an alternative.
58.Their parents sort of remember Woolworths as this store that used to be downtown.
59.Kim Jong-il has always been bluffing, but the West has always had to take him seriously.
60.Frasier, Sam, Woody and Rebecca have never Cheerfully frequented a bar in Boston during primetime.
71.Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.
74.“PC” has come to mean Personal Computer, not Political Correctness.
75.The New York Times and the Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers.”

Stephen

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Posted on: August 23, 2011, 11:16 am Category: Uncategorized

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