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August 21, 2007
Beloit College's Annual Mindset List
Here we go again. The Mindset List is out. It looks like the are recycling some old material. From this year's list for students born in 1989:
61. They never saw Johnny Carson live on television.
And from the very first one back in 1998, for students born in 1980:
28. "The Tonight Show" has always been with Jay Leno.
Carson was on "The Tonight Show" until 1992. So it's not even correct to say that the students entering college today were not yet born when Jay Leno came on board. Save that one for three years from now. Yes, the last decade worth of students were really young when Carson retired. We get it.
Not sure about this one either...
32. They grew up in Wayne’s World.
Only if their parents let them watch SNL before kindergarten. Mike Myers had moved on to Austin Powers fame before the time today's incoming freshmen hit junior high.
There are, as always, some good ones, but I think it's getting harder to come up with a new list every year. Check out the list and judge for yourself. I'll be sure to run it by my students today.
UPDATE: I did run it by my students. My line about Mike Myers/Austin Powers elicited a few smiles. They were familiar with Wayne's World from reruns. Of course, I'm familiar with The Brady Bunch (which was canceled when I was two years old), but it wasn't a touchstone for me. Family Ties, on the other hand....
But I digress. The real purpose of this update is to link in this MSNBC article with a quote from a Beloit student. The setup is that the Berlin Wall came down the same year that most of today's freshmen were born.
“I actually visited the Berlin Wall with my parents when I was in fifth grade,” said Jacob Williams, 18, of Louisville Ky., who is going through freshmen orientation at Beloit this week. “I didn’t know a lot about the history, but I think it was a great piece of architecture.”
Yes, it appears that Mr. Williams is identifying the Brandenburg Gate with the Berlin Wall. The Brandenburg Gate is, of course, a magnificent piece of architecture which was completed in 1791. It was incorporated into the Berlin Wall, and in fact, in photos from the time you can see that the Berlin Wall actually obscured the Brandenburg Gate as seen from the West. The fact that Mr. Williams could visit the site as a fifth grader and appreciate its architectural beauty is due to the fact that the wall itself is gone.
The Berlin Wall itself was not a great piece of architecture, as we have freeway sound barriers in this country that look nicer. Sure, there was some stunning graffiti on the wall, but it could only be appreciated from one side.
The Brandenburg Gate is today a symbol of the reunified Germany. If Mr. Williams is under the impression that the Brandenburg Gate was built as part of the Berlin Wall (which is what it sounds like), then he indeed doesn't know much about the history.
If he thinks that the Berlin Wall (aside from the Brandenburg Gate) was a great piece of architecture then he doesn't know much about architecture.
Posted by William Polley at August 21, 2007 11:10 AM
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Comments
This fall I'll be visiting The University of Guelph, where I will be teaching a course in Finance. I haven't taught that course since the last time I visited Guelph, back in 1984, before most of the current students were born. Who knows, I've probably taught some of their parents, if not their grandparents in my 68-year career 8-).
Posted by: EclectEcon at August 24, 2007 07:46 PM