Blog Archives
Our Parents’ Advisory for the Class of 2037 The annual watch is on, starting at midnight. For some, the real New Year’s fireworks will come with the arrival of the first baby born in 2015. News reports will cover the blessed events around the world. But amidst all the celebrating, parents and grandparents might want to think ahead, because this child, born in 2015, will turn 18 in 2033, graduate from high school, and head off into the next chapter of his or her life. There will be a lot of questions that need answering about that time. To help in preparing for the future, the authors of the Beloit College Mindset List, which looks at the worldview of students Read on »
Note: These two brief journeys down Memory Lane originally appeared in TODAY’S SENIOR Magazine as part of a continuing series. Remember When “The Shadow” Knew? By Tom McBride and Ron Nief When we were kids—it was just yesterday, plus 60 years or so—our favorite radio program was The Shadow, a crime series about a psychic vigilante named Lamont Cranston, determined to prove that the fruits of crime were always bitter. Traveling through the “Far East” Cranston acquired a gift that “clouded men’s minds” so they could not see him. This presented a real disadvantage to criminals, whom Cranston managed to scare and snare. He therefore put an end to their felonious deeds, every Sunday afternoon. The Shadow himself was Read on »
From the creators of THE MINDSET LIST®: The FINANCIAL Mindset List® For the Class of 2018 By Tom McBride and Ron Nief Today’s entering college students have spent most of their teenage years in a recession that has left employment, homes, educations, friends, and relatives uncertain about the future. Members of this year’s entering college class were born in 1996. If they are lucky and work hard they will graduate in four years with the class of 2018. In order to maintain the purchasing power of the dollar the year they were born, they will need to come up with an additional fifty-two cents. Since they were born, tuition and fees at public universities have gone up more than Read on »
The Mindset List®–of AMERICAN SPORTS–for the Class of 2018 Warning to Coaches: If you are out to inspire your young charges by references to Joe Montana or Steffi Graf, be prepared for the blank stares you will get in response. One of the most common reactions we get to our annual Mindset List, which examines the world of 18 year-old entering college students, is “Are you guys trying to make me feel old?” Yes, eighteen years happens fast and brings lots of change. This is particularly true in sports. Does it seem just yesterday that the Braves won the World Series and the Cowboys won the Super Bowl? Can you believe that when most of today’s eighteen year olds were Read on »
Mandela 12, Madonna 0 Tom McBride and Ron Nief A quarter of a century ago the author Bill Bryson found himself back in his home state after two decades abroad, and—quite by accident—on the campus of University of Iowa. While there, he got quite a shock. An old friend he was visiting in Iowa City explained to Bryson that these kids he was encountering around town, who to them looked to be about 14, were no longer “smoking dope” but were actually—wonder of wonders—“trying to get an education…so that they could become insurance salesmen and computer programmers…and make a lot of money so they can buy more penny loafers and Madonna albums.” Bryson, who reported all this in The Lost Read on »
Author contacts: Ron Nief (608-770-2625) niefr@beloit.edu Tom McBride (608-312-9508) mcbridet@beloit.edu Beloit College releases the Mindset List for this year’s entering class of first-year students, the Class of 2018 Beloit, Wis. — When the Class of 2018 arrives on campuses in the coming weeks, they will come with a view of the world quite distinct from their mentors. Most born in 1996, they have always had The Daily Show to set them straight, always been able to secure immediate approval and endorsement for their ideas through “likes” on their Facebook pages, and have rarely heard the term “bi-partisan agreement.” Each August since 1998, Beloit College in Beloit, Wis., has released the Beloit College Mindset List, providing a look at the cultural touchstones and experiences that Read on »
Learn Swahili and Slow Down Time! By Aarti Chawla and Tom McBride Can we control the passage of time? No—but, once we understand how time “feels,” we can influence how we experience it. Among the millions of people who respond each year to the Beloit College Mindset List, many report shock in learning that various events, which seemed to happen just yesterday, actually occurred nearly twenty years ago. When the co-creators of the List state that for an entering college class “Carl Sagan has always been dead,” older respondents say the death of Sagan (or Kurt Cobain or Princess Diana) seems to have happened last month, not two decades ago. A well-known factoid is that time speeds up for people Read on »
In association with legacy.com The Mindset List® Project proudly presents THE MINDSET LIST® OF DEATH AND REMEMBRANCE: From Cherubs to Cryonics. Beautifully illustrated, it surveys shifting American attitudes towards mortality and memory over 350 years–from Colonial times to 2100. The List ranges from cherubs on grave markers to cryonics, the technology of freezing dead bodies in hope that someday they may be brought back to life. You’ll find our latest List to be a mind-bending look at the changing American landscape over more than three centuries. To consider American death is to consider American life. Just go to http://www.legacy.com/life-and-death/