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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Getting Older Every Year

Jacob Levy tweeted this link to Beloit's mindset list, which informs profs of the new generation of students--what they have experienced and what they have in common.  AND how different they are from the geezers who teach them.  I discussed the previous years' versions.

Let's review shall we?
  1. Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents. [Only if you think they really would have stayed together.  And Ferris was too drug addled to be reliable, right?]
  2. There have always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.  [Unfortunately, the most visible female "role models" are Palin and Bachmann.]
  3. As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration. [Unlike the impact of the phone, the radio, the tv, etc.  Adults worry about technology--nothing new about that]
  4. Their school’s “blackboards” have always been getting smarter. [Only if their schools have unbelievable funding]
  5. “Don’t touch that dial!”….what dial?
  6. More Americans have always traveled to Latin America than to Europe. [Really?]
  7. Refer to LBJ, and they might assume you're talking about LeBron James. [Just as successful as the original, so no big change, right?]
  8. All their lives, Whitney Houston has always been declaring “I Will Always Love You.” [Um, all their lives, Whitney has been irrelevant]
  9. Jim Carrey has always been bigger than a pet detective. [Not lately, what a dated list]
  10. We have never asked, and they have never had to tell.
  11. Life has always been like a box of chocolates. [Um, if this list is supposed to get hip to the kids, I gotta wonder if the kids are Gump-aware].
  12. “Yadda, yadda, yadda” has always come in handy to make long stories short. [Please, Seinfeld did not invent that, been around much longer than that]
  13. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV. [Does not distinguish these folks much]
  14. Jimmy Carter has always been a smiling elderly man who shows up on TV to promote fair elections and disaster relief. [So, the line is really post 1984?]
  15. Dial-up is soooooooooo last century! [Finally a relevant one--internet has always been fast for these folks--now we can generalize about their impatience as if we aren't]
  16. Women have always been kissing women on television. [The real revolution is this one--that homosexuality is no longer entirely alien.  Rather than hating the homosexuals, it is now ok to hate the homophobes.  It does get better!]
  17. Their older siblings have told them about the days when Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera were Mouseketeers. [No, they have probably been told about Spears and Timberlake singing songs about the other].
  18. The bloody conflict between the government and a religious cult has always made Waco sound a little whacko. [I am sure they are unaware of this one]
  19. Electric cars have always been humming in relative silence on the road. [Really, we have that many e-cars around?]
  20. No longer known for just gambling and quickie divorces, Nevada has always been one of the fastest growing states in the Union.  [Sure, the kids are aware of demographic change]
  21. New kids have always been known as NKOTB. [Again, out of date]
  22. They’ve always wanted to be like Shaq or Kobe: Michael Who? [Actually, they want to be Kevin or Blake]
  23. They’ve often broken up with their significant others via texting, Facebook, or MySpace.
  24. It seems the United States has always been looking for an acceptable means of capital execution. [This does not separate these folks from any generation since when?]
  25. Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo. [Ah, we find a relevant one]
  26. “PC” has come to mean Personal Computer, not Political Correctness. [Um, no, both still relevant]
  27. The New York Times and the Boston Globe have never been rival newspapers. [Newspapers not so relevant]

Either I am really out of touch or the folks who made this list are.   You make the call.

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