Since 1998 Beloit College has released its Mindset List for the incoming Freshman Class. It was intended to provide faculty and staff at the college a guide for relating to the new students and understanding their perceptions of the world. I think now it has long since left that goal, and now serves as blog fodder and the source of forwarded e-mails.
The original list (for the Class of 2002) had some truly enlightening observations:
2. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.
8. They are too young to remember the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up.
9. Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
10. They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
14. They have never owned a record player.
16. Star Wars looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.
36. They don’t know who Mork was, or where he was from.
37. They never heard the terms "Where’s the Beef?", "I’d walk a mile for a Camel" or "De plane, de plane!"
38. They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
40. Michael Jackson has always been white.
41. Kansas, Boston, Chicago, America, and Alabama are all places—not music groups.
For the Class of 2010, I think Beloit is struggling to come up with creative ideas. It’s hard not to be repetitive with such a list. If the comment about Reagan was valid in 1998, then it’s certainly still valid for 2006.
Perhaps it’s even more of a statement about my own mindset that I don’t get half the references on this year’s mindset list.
[tags]Beloit College, Mindset List[/tags]