Aug. 19

What Your Frosh Know (and Don’t)

It can be depressing or humorous to realize that new students never experienced key moments in the history or culture that you experienced. Beloit College has a tradition of promoting better generational communication by releasing an annual “mindset list” to remind academics about what freshmen have experienced — and what they have never experienced.

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The list — a sure sign that the fall semester is upon us — was created by Tom McBride, a professor of humanities at Beloit, and Ron Nief, the director of public affairs. This year’s freshmen were generally born in 1990, meaning they completely missed all kinds of events formative to their professors. More information about the list, and complete lists from this year and the past may be found here. And for those seeking a different mindset, New Zealand’s Massey University offers a version for its part of the world.

Here are some of the highlights from this year’s list of freshman perspectives from Beloit:

Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
Students have always been “Rocking the Vote.”
Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
We have always known that “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
There have always been gay rabbis..
IBM has never made typewriters.
There has always been Pearl Jam.
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.
Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
Personal privacy has always been threatened.
Caller ID has always been available on phones.
They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
There have always been charter schools.

— Scott Jaschik

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Comments

What should have been number 4

You left perhaps the most important one off the list for Wisconsin students:

The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.

Robert, PhD Student, at 7:50 am EDT on August 19, 2008

another term

The word “Friend” is now also a verb, via Facebook and the like, and they could be hurt or rebuffed if you don’t “friend” them.

Rick Coronado, Professor at Benedictine College, at 8:55 am EDT on August 19, 2008

Corollary

Thanks for that addition, Robert. I appreciate it!

Here’s a corollary for Illinois students:

The Chicago Bears (almost) never had the same starting quarterback.

Dr. RingDing, at 8:55 am EDT on August 19, 2008

Rick’s comments points to a more general problem with the list — it is “out of touch” with the current generation for whom YouTube is a primary media outlet and 9/11 and the columbine massacre were defining moments in their young young lives. . . Inside Higher Ed should do this next year and do a better job.

Jean, at 9:15 am EDT on August 19, 2008

They have never known a time when women did not outnumber men in college.

Minority Group, at 9:15 am EDT on August 19, 2008

phones

I would bet that most freshman have never used a corded phone or heard a phone ‘ring’.

Jim, at 9:15 am EDT on August 19, 2008

At the doctor’s office last week, the nurse pulled out an under-the-tongue thermometer about which my teenaged daughter remarked, “Oh, we’re going old school!” I love these lists; they never fail to bring a smile.

Lee, at 9:26 am EDT on August 19, 2008

Add-ons

Robert’s contribution is on the author’s expanded list ...

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/

But what about ...

Sad to say, there has always been a Bush or a Clinton in the White House.

They were in their cribs when the U.S.S.R. imploded.

They have never heard Leonard Bernstein (or Aaron Copland) in person.

They have only known one Germany.

There have always been Saturns on our highways.

Nelson Mandela has never been in jail.

There has always been Adobe Photoshop.

They never saw Jim Henson hanging out with his pals.

There has always been Exxon-Valdez oil on the shores of Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Ireland has always had a woman as President.

Needless to say, the Cubs have never won the so-called “World” Series.

And most important to IHE readers ...

Ward Churchill has always been on the faculty at the University of Colorado.

Frizbane Manley, at 9:50 am EDT on August 19, 2008

my list

My additions:

Have never dialed a rotary phone.

Don’t understand what I mean when I talk about a “car phone” or “bag phone.”

Have always known the term “sexual harassment".

Have always known the threat of school shootings.

Have never lived in a world without HIV/AIDS.

Never learned about the Soviet Union, except as a part of history.

Wow, I feel old. And I’m not even 30 yet.

allison, univ of ky, at 9:50 am EDT on August 19, 2008

This list used to be better. Now it’s overfull with unhelpful (and dubious) things like the reference to American Gladiator.

Jack, at 9:50 am EDT on August 19, 2008

Seinfeld who?

My students absolutely do not get Seinfeld references.

Jack, at 10:00 am EDT on August 19, 2008

To add to my first comment on the decline of this list, the Harry Potter series first came out in 1997.

Jack, at 10:00 am EDT on August 19, 2008

Out of touch, indeed

With all due respect to the list’s authors, it is far past time for them to pass the reins to someone else, or at least bring in someone who is 20 with veto power.

At its conception, this list seemed designed around helping (at least in building a foundation) bridge the generation gap between faculty/admin and their younger students, with references that both sides would ‘get’ or at least ‘get enough’ to illustrate the divide (I was 22 when I started reading these lists and could appreciate the list from both sides)

Now I look at the list and how it is heavily skewed towards defining ‘us’ on the adult side, not our kids/students. Pearl Jam? Clarence Thomas? Electronic tax filing? Egads. What, no Scritti Politti mention?

lcl, at 11:55 am EDT on August 19, 2008

The assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK are history, not formative events like 9/11

Privacy? What’s that?

Oprah has always been the cultural maven

‘Real time’ is just a concept

CB in Chicago, at 12:00 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

For Jean, Jack, lcl, and CB in Chicago ...

Jean and lcl, three things ...

First, I think you’re waaay off base here. The list – and it has been around for eleven years — is not for students ... not even close. It’s for we old folks who are constantly astonished that time flies by so quickly that we sometimes have to do a double-take when we mention Pearl Bailey in Freshman Composition and the students peer over their laptops with expressions that mean, “Omigod, what did she write?” ... or “Will she be on the exam?” The whole point of the list is to be “out of touch.”

Second, pleeeeze, I implore you, don’t encourage InsideHigherEd to intrude on Beloit’s wonderful tradition.

Third, I do think you have a point. It might be interesting – although we’re looking for ironic humor here – to turn this concept upside down. What could cause our Freshman Composition students to scratch their heads in wonderment about who this anachronism is at the front of the classroom when s/he asks in response to a student’s essay choice, “Is this Tony Hawk a musician ... or what?” or “I’m afraid I don’t know Young Jeezy’s theories about the recession and politics.” Maybe, Jean and lcl, you should think about making an annual YouTube video of such a list ... perhaps with a eLZhi rapping in the background.

And Jack and CB ... I think Ron Nief and Tom McBride are quite faithful to the concept of tying the List to the actual year of birth of members of the freshman class (and, with the obvious exception of the Cubs, I did the same in my post above). Granted the first Harry Potter book came on the scene in 1997, but Harry was very close to seven-years-old at the time. Hence he would have been a cohort of the students in this year’s freshman class. [Note: there is some debate about this, but in all likelihood, Harry’s birth date January 31, 1990.]

The Oprah Winfrey Show, for example, came on the scene in 1986 ... four years before youngsters in this year’s freshman class were born.

Frizbane Manley, at 1:00 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

Need I remind you that this year’s freshmen were born in 1989? They were seven or eight years old when the Harry Potter books started... Here’s my addition: When asked “Where are you going, for how long,” & “with whom?” previous generations replied “Out, a while,” and “my friends.” Class of 2012’s answer to all three is “I have my phone.”

mom, at 1:00 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

To All ...

I know, I know, “’us’ old folks.” Damn! ... do I ever hate making mistakes like that.

Frizbane Manley, at 1:35 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

In fairness...

While I’m not prepared to overestimate the historical awareness of America’s college bound teens, I suspect the Beloit list is a mighty irritant to legions of secondary school social studies teachers in this country and elsewhere. (I’m not one of them.) We pay these professional educators to see to it that our high school graduates arrive at college or where-have-you unburdened by the notion that life, culture, and technology as they know it is as it has always been. Thanks to a high school history teacher, my teenage son is understandably puzzled that Justice Thomas was nominated and confirmed, but that’s quite different from failure to imagine a Supreme Court without him.

Brian Hopewell, at 2:30 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

Rain has always been acid.

Sex has always been dangerous.

philip, at 4:40 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

The list is amusing...

...and offers some insight, but I hope it does not become a polarizing exercise resulting in only highlighting the differences.

Perhaps the “flip-side” should be a list about what we have in common, but that list would be much longer and not as amusing.

In the modern world we seem to dwell on the differences as a way to categorize everyone, as if we are all things that can be measured with a ruler.

The point of a higher education is to broaden all of us, and give us all a common set of tools with which to view ourselves and society.

I hope the ruler is not the only tool in the tool box.

R.F., at 4:40 pm EDT on August 19, 2008

What They Never Knew

They have never spun a vinyl records or played an 8 track tape. They don’t know what a toll call is or a party line. They never road in a car that used leaded gas, which was a quarter. Cars always came with seat belts. The Catholic Mass was in Latin. The TV channel change was your brother, John.

Dr. Pat, at 10:35 am EDT on August 20, 2008

Reaction to this (and similar) lists

Why is it that some reaction to this list, and others like it, falls into the broad category of what the youth of today are “missing out” on, and the attendant beating of breasts and rending of garments?

My freshmen don’t seem particularly deprived. If they felt so, their reaction would be to blame their elders for changing the world: if it was so important, why isn’t it still around?

Humanities Grad Student, at 1:15 pm EDT on August 21, 2008

Responding To Many ...

To Brian Hopewell, R.F., and Humanities Grad Student ...

Ron Nief and Tom McBride have been making this list for at least eleven years. Anyone who thinks the list “... falls into the broad category of what the youth of today are ‘missing out’ on” ... or is in any way intended to be “a mighty irritant to legions of secondary school social studies teachers” ... or is supposed to “make my freshmen feel deprived” is simply missing the point. Hells bells, if you’re going to be up tight about it, don’t let your students or social studies teachers read it.

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/

The list – as I have said before – is intended to be ironic humor, and, to the extent there is an object of the joke (and I used to think there was), it is us, the profs. The joke is on us. We’re the ones who think twelve years ago was just yesterday. We’re the ones who imagine that what is firmly entrenched in our brains should be solidly embedded in everyone’s brain ... even if they’re only eighteen years old. We’re the ones who are astonished that life is zipping by so swiftly we have difficulty appreciating that everyone doesn’t have our sometimes important, sometimes trivial life’s experiences. My God, zip over to your local community college and take a course in satire. Whew!

To To allison, philip, and Dr. Pat ...

You guys are still not getting it. The point of the Beloit List is to characterize something about the Class of 2012 that is very close to being unique (or first) for someone born in 1990. Rotary phones, HIV/AIDS, acid rain, dangerous sex, vinyl records, 8-track tapes, leaded gasoline, mass in Latin, and remote channel changers – while accurate – simply do not qualify for this year’s Beloit List. Your entries are waaay too late. I could just as accurately say, “Never got to see Christ walk on water.” Holy smokes!

Frizbane Manley, at 6:05 am EDT on August 22, 2008

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