[Vision2020] Class of 2013 "mindset list"

[Carl Westberg]

If the entering college class of 2013 had been
more alert back in 1991 when most of them were born, they would now be
experiencing a severe case of déjà vu. The headlines that year railed
about government interventions, bailouts, bad loans, unemployment and
greater regulation of the finance industry. The Tonight Show changed hosts for the first time in decades, and the nation asked “was Iraq worth a war?” 

	Each
August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College
Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape
the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s
Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Emeritus Public
Affairs Director Ron Nief.  It is used around the world as the school
year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference
for this new generation. It is widely reprinted and the Mindset List
website at http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/ receives more than 300,000 hits annually.

	As
millions of students head off to college this fall, most will continue
to experience the economic anxiety that marked their first two years of
life just as it has marked their last two years of high school. Fears
of the middle class--including their parents--about retirement and
health care have been a part of their lives. Now however, they can turn
to technology and text a friend: "Momdad still worried bout stocks. urs
2? PAW PCM".

	Members of the class of 2013 won't be surprised
when they can charge a latté on their cell phone and curl up in the
corner to read a textbook on an electronic screen. The migration of
once independent media—radio, TV, videos and CDs—to the computer has
never amazed them. They have grown up in a politically correct universe
in which multi-culturalism has been a given.  It is a world organized
around globalization, with McDonald's everywhere on the planet. Carter
and Reagan are as distant to them as Truman and Eisenhower were to
their parents. Tattoos, once thought "lower class," are, to them, quite
chic. Everybody knows the news before the evening news comes on.

	Thus the class of 2013 heads off to college as tolerant, global, and technologically hip…and with another new host of The Tonight Show.  

	
	The Beloit College  Mindset List for the Class of 2013
	   Most  students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991.

	

	For these students,  Martha Graham, Pan American Airways, Michael Landon, Dr. Seuss, Miles Davis,  The Dallas Times Herald, Gene Roddenberry, and Freddie Mercury have  always been dead.Dan Rostenkowski, Jack  Kevorkian, and Mike Tyson have always been felons.The Green Giant has  always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.They have never used a  card catalog to find a book.Margaret Thatcher has  always been a former prime minister. Salsa has always  outsold ketchup.Earvin  "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive. Tattoos have always  been very chic and highly visible.They have been  preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.Rap music has always  been main stream.Chocolate chip cookie  dough ice cream has always been a flavor choice.Someone has always  been building something taller than the Willis (née Sears) Tower in Chicago. The KGB has never  officially existed.Text has always been  hyper.They never saw the  “Scud Stud” (but there have always been electromagnetic stud finders.)Babies have always had  a Social Security Number.They have never had to  “shake down” an oral thermometer.Bungee jumping has  always been socially acceptable.They have never  understood the meaning of R.S.V.P.American students have  always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.Except for the present  incumbent, the President has never inhaled. State abbreviations in  addresses have never had periods.The European Union has  always existed.McDonald's has always  been serving Happy Meals in China.Condoms have always  been advertised on television.Cable television  systems have always offered telephone service and vice versa.Christopher Columbus  has always been getting a bad rap.The American health  care system has always been in critical condition. Bobby Cox has always  managed the Atlanta Braves.Desperate smokers have  always been able to turn to Nicoderm skin patches.There has always been  a Cartoon Network.The nation’s key  economic indicator has always been the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Their folks could  always reach for a Zoloft.They have always been  able to read books on an electronic screen.Women have always  outnumbered men in college.We have always watched  wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.Amateur radio  operators have never needed to know Morse code.Belarus, Moldova,  Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Latvia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Estonia have  always been independent nations.It's always been  official: President Zachary Taylor did not die of arsenic poisoning.Madonna’s perspective  on Sex has always been well documented.Phil Jackson has  always been coaching championship basketball.Ozzy Osbourne has  always been coming back.Kevin Costner has  always been Dancing with Wolves, especially on cable.There have always been  flat screen televisions.They have always eaten  Berry Berry Kix.Disney’s Fantasia has  always been available on video, and It’s a Wonderful Life has always been on  Moscow television.Smokers have never  been promoted as an economic force that deserves respect.Elite American  colleges have never been able to fix the price of tuition.Nobody has been able  to make a deposit in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).Everyone has always  known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.Britney Spears has  always been heard on classic rock stations.They have never been  Saved by the BellSomeone has always  been asking: “Was Iraq worth a war?”Most communities have  always had a mega-church.Natalie Cole has  always been singing with her father.The status of gays in  the military has always been a topic of political debate.Elizabeth Taylor has  always reeked of White Diamonds.There has always been  a Planet Hollywood.For one reason or  another, California’s future has always been in doubt.Agent Starling has  always feared the Silence of the Lambs.“Womyn” and  “waitperson” have always been in the dictionary.Members of Congress  have always had to keep their checkbooks balanced since the closing of the  House Bank.There has always been  a computer in the Oval Office.CDs have never been  sold in cardboard packaging.Avon has always been  “calling” in a catalog.NATO has always been  looking for a role.Two Koreas have always  been members of the UN.Official racial  classifications in South Africa have always been outlawed.The NBC Today Show has  always been seen on weekends.Vice presidents of the  United States have always had real power.Conflict in Northern  Ireland has always been slowly winding down.Migration of once  independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has  never amazed them.Nobody has ever  responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”Congress could never  give itself a mid-term raise.There has always been  blue Jell-O.
	
Beloit College - 700 Colle
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail® is up to 70% faster. Now good news travels really fast. 
http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=PID23391::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HYGN_faster:082009
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20090828/240539b6/attachment-0001.html