[lit-ideas] culture

  • From: jimkandjulieb@xxxxxxx
  • To: FloydAndColleen@xxxxxxx, DLeonowich@xxxxxxx, Allfaithremains@xxxxxxx, Snazzbo3@xxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:33:17 -0400

  
By DINESH RAMDE, Associated Press Writer Wed Aug 23, 7:45 AM ET 
BELOIT, Wis. - For most teens starting college this fall, disposable contact 
lenses have always been available, wars and revolutions have always been 
televised, and a stamp was rarely needed for communication. 
 
Born in 1988, incoming freshmen grew up knowing only two presidents, searching 
for Waldo and eating dolphin-free canned tuna.
Those are some of the 75 cultural landmarks on the Beloit College Mindset List, 
an annual compilation that offers a glimpse of the world view through the eyes 
of each incoming class. The list was released Wednesday by this private school 
of 1,250 in this southern Wisconsin city.
"The list isn't looking strictly for chronological accuracy," said Ron Nief, 
the school's director of public affairs. "It's more about capturing cultural 
horizons and world views."
For example, item No. 2 says the class of 2010 has only known two presidents 
because the third, the elder 
   
George Bush, was voted out of office when they were only 4 years old, Nief said.
Billy Carter, Billy Martin and Lucille Ball all died before the incoming 
freshmen were born, according to the study's authors. But Julie Heney said she 
remembers the classic comedienne from imitating her in skits.
How did Heney, 18, learn about Ball?
"I googled her," said the Montpelier, Vt. native, confirming No. 19 on the 
Mindset list: "'Google' has always been a verb" for this generation.
Item No. 33 reflects a 1992 quote by black motorist Rodney King, who was beaten 
by four white officers. A jury's verdict acquitting the officers of the most 
serious charges spawned race riots and compelled King to issue a plea for peace.
The item reads: "They have no idea why we needed to ask, '... Can we all get 
along?'"
Mitchell Young, 18, of Highland Park, Ill., said the quote was familiar.
"I've heard it before. It sounds like a John Lennon thing," Young said.
The list gives faculty a better understanding of the cultural attitudes of the 
incoming class, said English professor Tom McBride, who helps Nief assemble the 
list.
"Once upon a time faculty could talk about the Watergate scandal. This reminds 
them that now they have to explain it first," McBride said.
Students didn't agree with all the items on the list, for example, that they 
grew up with reality-television shows and have always had access to their own 
credit cards.
"I think these things might apply to some people, but not to everyone, said 
Brigid Wold-Walsh, 18, from Seattle.
Nief acknowledged that most of the items are relevant to white middle-class 
America.
McBride said the lists, begun in 1998, often depress people who find themselves 
wondering how they got so old so fast. 
"But it's an illusion. It's not them getting old, it's culture that changes so 
fast," he said. "Trends and fashions are so short-lived that a lot happens in 
just 18 years." 
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