2009-08-20

Youth: The Mindset of Today's College Freshman

The Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2013

Each year since 1998 professors at Beloit College have created a list of cultural touchstones to help serve as a reminder to the college staff about the mindset of the students they will engage with. 

Each year since 1998 youth pastors have been paying attention to this list.

Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1991.

Below are some highlights that I found interesting.

Click HERE for more information and the rest of this year’s list.

 

4.       They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

9.        They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.

20.     American students have always lived anxiously with high-stakes educational testing.

24.     McDonald's has always been serving Happy Meals in China.

25.     Condoms have always been advertised on television.

29.     Bobby Cox has always managed the Atlanta Braves.

34.     They have always been able to read books on an electronic screen.

  1. Women have always outnumbered men in college.
  2. We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.

50.     Everyone has always known what the evening news was before the Evening News came on.

53.     Someone has always been asking: “Was Iraq worth a war?”

  1. Most communities have always had a mega-church.

72.     Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.

  1. Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”

 

Sports: Wild Card Race 2009-08-20

This tends to happen a lot to me.  Once I make some kind of public declaration for my sports team they will begin to lose.

It is for this reason I refuse to bet.  In 1990 I bet a neighborhood friend $5 that the Oakland A’s would sweep the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series.  Not only did the Reds win, but they swept the A’s in four games.  Seriously, Chris Sabo hit two round-trippers in Game 3.  That doesn’t happen to the A’s unless I curse them by betting on them. 

So a couple days ago I had a brief post bragging on my Texas Rangers being one game ahead of the Boston Red Sox for the wild card lead.  The Ranger immediately follow my post with two losses.  They now trail the Nation by a game. 

Hopefully the effect of my curse won’t last for very long and I will continue to display a nonchalant attitude.