College offers profs freshmen `history'

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 25, 2002 | by Stephen Goode

Each year staff members at Wisconsin's Beloit College put together a list of those characteristics that best will define the attitudes and background of the incoming freshman class.

The purpose is to give the faculty an idea of what to expect come September. But the list no doubt also reminds the professors how fast time passes and how quickly things change. Here are a few items on the list used to describe the freshmen who arrived at Beloit last September:

* They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era and probably did not know that he had been shot.

* They were 10 when the Soviet Union broke apart and do not remember the Cold War.

* Jay Leno always has been host of the Tonight Show.

* Popcorn always has been cooked in the microwave oven.

* Michael Jackson always has been white.

* They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter.

* They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.

* There always have been VCRs, and they have no idea what the "Beta" format was.

* They cannot fathom not having a remote control.

* They never have seen a rotary-dial telephone.

* They always have had an answering machine.

* They may never have heard of an eight-track stereo. The CD was introduced the year they were born.

* The statement "You sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.

STEPHEN GOODE IS A SENIOR WRITER FOR Insight MAGAZINE.