The Beloit College Mindset list for the class of 2014 is an amazing list of cultural touchstones that students seem to accept in their everyday lives. For myself, most of these touchstones are surprisingly familiar. In the following paragraph I will discuss what fits my knowledge and what does not seem to be right to me.
When scanning the list I came across some awkward but true facts that fit me. This includes: few in my class know how to write cursive, email is just to slow, Czechoslovakia has never existed, and they’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day. These are the touchstones that most stand out to me because I remember talking about them in high school. The cultural touchstones that do not make sense to me are: J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone, Honda has always been a major competitor on Memorial Day at Indianapolis, and hey have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college. The first two just don't make sense, and I wish I new about the last one. I wonder if that still is some sort of program?
The Beloit College Mindset list is a generalization of our class knowledge. This means not everyone will know what each point on the list means. Most people will have some sort of recognition of items on the cultural touchstone list, but their a few points that people will be totally confused about. For me, I feel like I can relate to most points on the list and that gives me a sense of familiarity.
I agree with the touchstones that you don't understand! I have nooo idea who J.R. Ewing is or what Honda has to do with Memorial Day in Indianapolis! Ha Hopefully that doesn't make me a horrible person.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that J.R. Ewing is unknown to me. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who was absolutely confused with some of the things on the list.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up some of the comments myself, because I had absolutely no clue what was being talked about. I wonder how many people actually understood all of the ideas on the list.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I had no idea who J.R. Ewing was and some of the other comments confused me as well. How are these thing supposed to be a part of our generation when we don't even know what they are?
ReplyDeleteYep its a pretty general list of the knowledge of our class but what they fail to realize is that we know a good majority of those facts since they had to cram them into our brains for the past thirteen years
ReplyDeleteI like your koala picture. Hahaha. And I disagree with your comment about Czechoslovakia--seriously people! lol
ReplyDeletelove your picture!! agreed about who J.R. Ewing is. I had to look it up because i had no idea who he was.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the ones you didn't think made sense. I was confused on those ones too!
ReplyDeleteJ.R. Ewing is a singer, and that is all I know about that. This list was pretty much just a list of things I can laugh at now, it wasn't a complete waste of my time.
ReplyDeleteSomething to think about...
ReplyDeleteWhat challenges do you think you will face in college or the work force due to the differences in generations?
What things are you going to have to be more sensitive about?
Good job on your blog!
Cody-- I love the picture of the Koala. Some federal and state programs that help you earn money... Work study is one of those programs, and you can find out if you're eligible by calling the financial aid office on campus or checking your access plus. I'm looking forward to reading your next post!
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