Old farts, unite! Did you know that most students stepping foot on college campuses for the first time in the next few weeks were born in 1989?
That's right, 1989.
Beloit College's Tom McBride and Ron Nief recently published their annual Mindset List for this newest incoming freshman class. This list of "70 items provide a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of today’s first-year students" -- and, inevitably, makes the rest of us feel positively ancient.
Here are some highlights from the Mindset List® for the Class of 2011:
"Most of the students entering College this fall, members of the Class
of 2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov,
Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the
Beachcomber have always been dead."
- They never “rolled down” a car window.
- They have grown up with bottled water.
- Pete Rose has never played baseball.
- Rap music has always been mainstream.
- Being “lame” has to do with being dumb or inarticulate, not disabled.
- Al Gore has always been running for president or thinking about it.
- They grew up in Wayne’s World.
- U2 has always been more than a spy plane.
- They were introduced to Jack Nicholson as “The Joker.”
- Stadiums, rock tours and sporting events have always had corporate names.
- Fox has always been a major network.
- Women’s studies majors have always been offered on campus.
- They learned about JFK from Oliver Stone and Malcolm X from Spike Lee.
- Most phone calls have never been private.
- Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
- MTV has never featured music videos.
- They never saw Johnny Carson live on television.
- The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.
- Burma has always been Myanmar.
(The full list is at http://www.beloit.edu/%7Epubaff/mindset/2011.php.)
Whoa.
I don't know about you, but I don't have much in common with today's Class of 2011, because I most definitely remember life before the Internet, Starbucks, and when MTV only used to play music videos.
To take it a step further, to be perfectly honest, the idea of sitting in a classroom with these, well, kids, makes me, well, somewhat comfortable. That's just another reason (besides the convenience and flexibility that I so cherish) that online education is the right choice for me. At this stage in my life, I would prefer to learn with and learn from like-minded peers: those of us who feel, well, old.
OK, time to hit the 4:30 senior citizen dinner special! ;)