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Beloit College Issues Mindset List for the Class of 2012
Beloit College is a small institution of higher learning, located in Beloit, Wisconsin, right along the Illinois border. Each year at this time, the college grabs some headlines for itself by issuing what it calls the “Beloit College Mindset List.” The college says "it provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college." What it really does is remind the parents of college kids just how long ago their own college days were.
There are 60 items on this years list. It begins rather depressingly with “Students entering college for the first time this fall were generally born in 1990. For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.” It immediately lightens up by noting “Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.”
Among the cultural points, Beloit notes:
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The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
- Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
- Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
- The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
- Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
- Soft drink refills have always been free.
Technology has changed a great deal in the last 18 years, too. For example,
- GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
- Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
- IBM has never made typewriters.
- Caller ID has always been available on phones.
However, the world political system has probably changed the most. The college list says:
- The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
- Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
- Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs, and
- The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
If the last 11 years of lists have proved nothing else, the world they will graduate into will be much different from the one into which they were born. After all, former junk-bond trader and jailbird Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research. There is such a thing as progress.
© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.
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