The Freshman "Mindset"

Last week I happened to teach my U101 class on 9/11. These students were in the 6th grade when it happened and I was curious what they remembered of it or how they reflected on it. I also wanted to give them a chance to talk about it if it was on their minds.

They remembered it vividly. They remembered everything about that day--at some of their middle schools they didn't know anything about it until they got home while at others they moved from class to class as usual but just watched CNN in each new classroom. I have three out-of-state students in the class; two from the New York City area (one from Long Island and another from New Jersey). Their experiences, not surprisingly, were quite different since it directly affected many of their friends and friends' families.

This causes me to think of the "mindset" of each new class of students. When Jacob, technically born "pre-9/11" but only by a matter of months, goes to college he and his cohort will naturally have no sense of a world before 9/11. My students, much to my surprise, actually could articulate some of the differences of a pre- and post-9/11 world.

Each year Beloit College releases a "Mindset List," which outlines what kinds of things would be unknown to the current crop of students. So, this year's freshmen, otherwise known as the "Class of 2012" (although many will take 5 or 6 years to graduate and a certain percentage won't graduate at all), will have never known any other host of the "Tonight Show" other than Jay Leno. Most of them were born in 1989 or 90. For those keeping score at home, that was my freshman year of college. (Yes, it's just thick with irony that I'm teaching freshmen who were born during my freshman year.)

Here's an abbreviated version of the Beloit list and their pithy (ahem) observations with a few of my sage (ahem) observations and/or links:

1. They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego. (I still remember this being one of our first video games on our home computer when I was in high school. See #14 and #22.)
2. Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles. ("Rock and roller cola wars...I can't take it anymore!")
3. Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option. (So much quicker to blow that refund!)
4. Häagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts. (Ah, that was the source of the "Freshman 15"!)
5. WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
6. Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
7. The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents. (Wrong league?)
8. Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
9. Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
10. We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” (Remember when this book was all the rage? I even saw Fulghum twice in person at speaking events. Once, he had such bad carpal tunnel that he was "signing" books with his thumb print.)
11. There have always been gay rabbis. (Oh, I thought that said gay "rabbits.")
12. Wayne Newton has never had a mustache. (Who cares?)
13. College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
14. IBM has never made typewriters. (My freshman year I bought a typewriter for use in my room and a stack of "floppies" for when I could get to the lab to use a Mac Plus.)
15. There has always been Pearl Jam. (No pithy comment here. Just a "thanks" to Eddie Vedder and crew.)
16. Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border. (Good work, USA. It's worked great so far so I say, "Adelante! ¡Máz!")
17. Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia. (Ah, memories of my trip to Leningrad in 1988...)
18. Caller ID has always been available on phones. (Apparently it was actually invented in Greece in 1969. Another great gift from Greece!)
19. The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback. (Oh, Brett, what were you thinking?)
20. Soft drink refills have always been free.
21. They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.” (Actually, Seinfeld, went off the air when today's freshmen were about 8 years old.)
22. Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
23. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs. (I guess I missed a Muscovite Big Mac by about 18 months.)
24. Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited. (And you don't think this year's election matters?)
25. There have always been charter schools.