Top Ten Tuesday: Beloit College Mindset List

The Beloit College Mindset List provides a look at the "cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college each fall." It was originally created in August 1998 as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references, but soon became a "catalog of the rapidly changing worldview of each new generation." Most students entering college for the first time this fall were born in 1992. Here are ten items from this year's list of 75 that seem particularly relevant.

• Few in the class know how to write in cursive.
• Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
• “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo.
• With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
• Entering college this fall in a country where a quarter of young people under 18 have at least one immigrant parent, they aren't afraid of immigration...unless it involves "real" aliens from another planet.
• DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
• Cross-burning has always been deemed protected speech.
• Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
• They have always had a chance to do community service with local and federal programs to earn money for college.
• One way or another, “It’s the economy, stupid” and always has been.