It is fall, time for school to start again and time for me, once again, to be reminded of how old I am getting.  About this time each year Beloit College publishes their “Mindset List” noting events that have shaped the incoming freshman class.  About this time each year, I share some of my favorite items from their list.  This year I was struck by how many of the items deal with computers which were still shiny and new when I started my college career. 

In fact, I am so old that I remember my high school chemistry teacher, Mr. Youngerman insisting that we learn how to use a slide rule – a slide rule! (if you have to look it up, you are definitely younger than I).  

For the whole list visit http://www.beloit.edu/mindset

Enjoy!

Freshman entering college this year are mostly 18 and were born in 1999 and  they will be the last class to be born in the 1900s, the last of the Millennials. 

Peanuts comic strips have always been repeats.

They are the first generation for whom a “phone” has been primarily a video game, direction finder, electronic telegraph, and research library.

They have largely grown up in a floppy-less world. (Hey, I grew up in a floppy-less world too!)

There have always been emojis to cheer us up.

It is doubtful that they have ever used or heard the high-pitched whine of a dial-up modem.

By the time they entered school, laptops were outselling desktops.

Whatever the subject, there’s always been a blog for it.  

In their lifetimes, Blackberry has gone from being a wild fruit to being a communications device to becoming a wild fruit again. 

They have only seen a Checker Cab in a museum.

The Mars Polar Lander has always been lost.

The image of Sacagawea has always adorned the dollar coin, if you can find one.

Nolan Ryan has always worn his Texas Rangers cap in Cooperstown, while Steve Young and Dan Marino have always been watching football from the sidelines.

Thought for the Week

“I complain that the years fly past, but then I look in a mirror and see that very few of them actually got past ” ~ Robert Brault