Each August, Beloit College presents a Mindset List of experiences and events that have informed the lives of incoming first-year students.
From the introduction:
“Most 18-year-old students entering the class of 2010 this fall were born in 1988. They grew up with a mouse in one hand and a computer screen as part of their worldview. They learned to surf the internet as they learned to read. While they were still in their cribs, the 20th century started to close as the Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet bloc disintegrated, and frequent traditional wars in Latin America gave way to the uncontrolled terrors of the Middle East.”
Some of my favorites in this year’s list:
– The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.
– “Google” has always been a verb.
– Text messaging is their email.
– The U.S. has always been studying global warming to confirm its existence.
– Michael Moore has always been showing up uninvited.