Elk jaar publiceert Beloit een lijst met de mindset van studenten die nu aan het hoger onderwijs beginnen in de VS. Het is vaak een grappige, maar ook confronterend overzicht.

Enkele opvallende elementen uit de lijst van dit jaar van studenten die nooit prinses Diana of moeder Theresa levend meegemaakt hebben:

• Hybrid automobiles have always been mass produced.
• Google has always been there, in its founding words, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.”
• They have never licked a postage stamp.
• Email has become the new “formal” communication, while texts and tweets remain enclaves for the casual.
• Four foul-mouthed kids have always been playing in South Park.
• Hong Kong has always been under Chinese rule.
• They have grown up treating Wi-Fi as an entitlement.
• The announcement of someone being the “first woman” to hold a position has only impressed their parents.
• Color photos have always adorned the front page of The New York Times.
• “No means no” has always been morphing, slowly, into “only yes means yes.”
• Cell phones have become so ubiquitous in class that teachers don’t know which students are using them to take notes and which ones are planning a party.
• Their parents have gone from encouraging them to use the Internet to begging them to get off it.
• If you say “around the turn of the century,” they may well ask you, “which one?”
• They have avidly joined Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione as they built their reading skills through all seven volumes.
• Kyoto has always symbolized inactivity about global climate change.
• Teachers have always had to insist that term papers employ sources in addition to those found online.
• Sir Paul and Sir Elton have always been knights of the same musical roundtable.
• Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have always been members of NATO
• TV has always been in such high definition that they could see the pores of actors and the grimaces of quarterbacks.
• Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith have always been Men in Black, not their next-door neighbors.

Welke zou jij nog toevoegen?