Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Mindset List

The Beloit College Mindset List is an effort to identify the worldview of incoming freshman in a given year. For example, I'm the class of 2007, that would be those generally born in late 1984 or early 1985.

Granted there is surely going to be some generalizations, it's still a neat idea to try and identify the unique experiences, or non-experiences, that shape who we are. Here are some highlights from my class and the newest freshman class:

Class of 2007
"Ctrl + Alt + Del" is as basic as "ABC."
Paul Newman has always made salad dressing.
Pete Rose has always been a gambler.
Gas has always been unleaded.
They would never leave their calling card on someone’s desk.
They have never been able to find the "return" key.
Rock and Roll has always been a force for social good.
They can still sing the rap chorus to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the theme song from Duck Tales.

Class of 2011
Food packaging has always included nutritional labeling.
They’re always texting 1 n other.
The space program has never really caught their attention except in disasters.
They learned about JFK from Oliver Stone and Malcolm X from Spike Lee.
Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM.
Religious leaders have always been telling politicians what to do, or else!
They have grown up with bottled water.
They never “rolled down” a car window.
Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.

No comments:

Post a Comment

You are the reason why I do not write privately. I would love to hear your thoughts, whether you agree or not.