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Class of 2011–the cultural context
As it has each August for the last decade, Beloit College in Wisconsin released its latest Mindset List for the Class of 2011, a reminder of what cultural context means for the young adults with work with and love, for those who turn 18 in 2007. (Also a reminder of how old I really am!)
The list is maintained by Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Public Affairs Director Ron Nief.
Among the 70 interesting things to consider:
- They never “rolled down” a car window.
- Avatars have nothing to do with Hindu deities.
- They will encounter roughly equal numbers of female and male professors in the classroom.
- Jerry Springer has always been lowering the level of discourse on TV.
- They get much more information from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert than from the newspaper.
- Being a latchkey kid has never been a big deal.
- Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, autobiography can happen in real time.
- They learned about JFK from Oliver Stone and Malcolm X from Spike Lee.
- General Motors has always been working on an electric car.
- Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.
- Pete Rose has never played baseball.
- Rap music has always been mainstream.
- Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
- They were born the year Harvard Law Review Editor Barack Obama announced he might run for office some day.
- Half of them may have been members of the Baby-sitters Club.
- Al Gore has always been running for president or thinking about it.
- Multigrain chips have always provided healthful junk food.
- They grew up in Wayne’s World.
- U2 has always been more than a spy plane.
- Stadiums, rock tours and sporting events have always had corporate names.
- No one has ever been able to sit down comfortably to a meal of “liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
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About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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