These days, so-called friends and family have taken great pleasure in pointing out that my hair is graying – because, obviously, that’s the sort of detail that might escape my attention.
Funny. One day you’re grooming a truly spectacular mullet, and the next you’re turning gray trying to figure out why your kids’ preschool costs more than your car does.
It wasn’t comforting when I recently found out this year’s freshman college class was born the year I graduated from high school, 1988. The year Wayne Gretzky was traded to Los Angeles and Magic Johnson won his last championship. The year after the Challenger shuttle disaster and a year before the Berlin Wall fell.
MTV still played music.
Really terrible music.
The Beloit College Mindset List, released by humanities professor Tom McBride and public-affairs director Ron Nief, is an annual catalog of 75 cultural landmarks that give us some perspective on how this year’s incoming freshman class views the world. Or, more precisely, how they don’t view it.
“They have known only two presidents.”
“The Soviet Union has never existed and therefore is about as scary as the student union.”
“Carbon copies are oddities found in their grandparents’ attics.”
“Professional athletes have always competed in the Olympics.”
“Reality shows have always been on television.”
“Madden has always been a game, not a Super Bowl-winning coach.”
“Dolphin-free canned tuna has always been on sale.”
Jody Donovan, director of Student Transitions and Parent & Family Programs at Colorado State University, believes these historical and cultural benchmarks are pivotal in assisting educators.
“It definitely helps us to know what the new students are like and the important things that have impacted their lives,” she explains. “I teach a class where I discuss how students change through freshman to senior years. … I brought this list out, and we had a fabulous discussion about how news and times change as well. It’s a great help.”
Changes are inevitable, and they come quicker than some adults may realize. Donovan tells me that not very long ago, Columbine had a dramatic impact on the way incoming students viewed the world.
These days, it’s not even on their radar.
Even 9/11, perhaps the momentous event of our time, transpired when these freshmen were only in middle school. “For them, 9/11 will probably exist more through movies,” Donovan explains.
Technology typically poses the biggest change from generation to generation. Information is now more accessible than ever. Where you and I may have had to undergo the grueling process of peddling to the local library to dig up an encyclopedia, today’s students can Google a question at home and find what they need in seconds.
“I have a colleague who has a great saying. He says that students have access to more information than they ever had before, but they don’t have the time on the planet to make sense of the information,” says Donovan. “So they have all this information, but they don’t know what to do with it.”
Donovan has noticed many other technological changes. Freshmen, for instance, will never have to wait in line to use the dorm pay phone so they can hit up Mom and Dad for some cash. Students often touch base with family members all day long – text messages, e-mails and cellphone calls.
Some things, though, will never change, says Donovan: finding friends and fitting in academically.
“But what’s really funny is that when you put a list like this in front of a current freshman, they say, ‘Yeah, so what?”‘ Donovan explains. “This is their reality. These lists are only really funny for older people.”
Funny until you realize that you’re one of those “older people.”
David Harsanyi’s column appears Monday and Thursday. He can be reached at 303-954-1255 or dharsanyi@denverpost.com.
