Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for causing pain in his marriage, members of this fall’s entering college class of 2014 have never written in cursive or worn a wristwatch. In their world, e-mail is way too slow, and Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.
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 this fall. Created by two Benoit professors, the survey was originally intended as a reminder to faculty to avoid dated cultural references, but over the years it has grown to become a catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation.
This year’s survey reveals that few in the entering class know how to write in cursive, and they rarely if ever use snail mail. Fergie is a pop star, not a princess, and Clint Eastwood is a sensitive director, not Dirty Harry. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of Major League Baseball, Beethoven is a large dog, and Michelangelo is a computer virus.
See the complete survey results on the Beloit College website.
