You know it's August: The yellow jackets are back, there's no good network TV, and my alma mater,
Beloit College has released its
"Mindset List":
Each August, as students start to arrive, Beloit College releases the Beloit College Mindset List, which offers a world view of today's entering college students. It is the creation of Beloit's Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride [I know him!] and Director of Public Affairs Ron Nief. [. . .]
The list is distributed to faculty on campus during the New Students Days orientation. [. . .] According to Nief, "This is not serious in-depth research. It is meant to be thought-provoking and fun, yet accurate. It is as relevant as possible, given the broad social and geographic diversity of our students [. . .]. It is still a good reflection of the attitudes and experiences of the young people that we must be aware of from the first day of their college experience."
I was at Beloit when the
first mindset list was released. Now it's all very formal and even comes with a little ®. And, as usual, it's a bizarre collection of things that supposedly identify this post-millenial generation.
I won't reprint the whole thing (the ® may will mean a lawsuit!), but here are a few favorites:
- Andy Warhol, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, and Lee Marvin have always been dead.
- Car stereos have always rivaled home component systems.
- The federal budget has always been more than a trillion dollars.
- Dirty dancing has always been acceptable.
- Judicial appointments routinely have been "Borked."
- They do not remember "a kinder and gentler nation."
- They have always been challenged to distinguish between news and entertainment on cable TV.
In a couple of weeks, I will be turning 29 for the third time. (I like my shirts roomy, hint hint). I am
so old.
Check the list. Share your faves in the comments!