A reminder . . .

I found this article at Education Week on the annual Beloit College Mindset List  interesting and informative. The list started in 1998 and has been publish annually since then as a reminder for professors of the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of incoming freshmen. For those my age, it is also a reminder of just how old we are.


Of the 75 items on the list there are some such as number 6 below that I don’t understand at all – probably a reference to the Buffy the Vampire movies I believe.

6. Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High.

Some others of interest to me included these.

12. Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.

19. They never twisted the coiled handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone. – I still have one of these on my office phone and yes, I do play with it.

28. They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day.

43. Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.

Though amusing and a reminder of our age, the list does serve a useful purpose as we consider the need to ensure that schoolwork is meaningful to students. Our learners come to school with significantly different mental models than the adults bring to their work. Being reminded of this is supportive of suspending our assumptions and considering the needs of our students.