It’s always worth a good generational chuckle to see that annual Beloit College Mindset Update, the one that reminds you that the incoming class of college freshmen views the world a little differently. For them, Andy Warhol is a museum in Pittsburgh and charter schools have always been an alternative. And conceivably some in the class of 2015 may not trust anyone older than the Internet, which has always existed for them.
But, seriously, it’s more than an exercise in a fun, cultural phenomenon. It’s actually a reminder to teachers that these newly minted college students bring different perspectives and frames of reference to the university experience. Some things you can’t take for granted.
But regardless of cultural shifts and technological changes, teachers, of course, should have bottom line expectations. We used to call it reading the minutes of previous meetings. Know what happened before you got here.
For example, even if you never knew of a Russia with an official Communist Party or never heard of a Ho Chi Minh City that wasn’t part of the Pepsi Generation, you need to know about the Cold War and lessons still to be gleaned from the Vietnam misadventure.
If not, that’s a serious societal flaw — not a mere generational gap.