Franklin, Trey: Beloit List

Students will never truly and completely understand their professors. The reverse holds true for students. There are innumerable differences between the faculty and student mindsets in today’s society. There are also just as many similarities. The lists, The Beloit College Mind-Set List Welcomes the ‘Internet Class’ and The 2011 Mind-Set of Faculty (Born Before 1980), both describe these mind-sets with some precision.

             

Of the many differences behind the mind-set of a faculty member born before 1980 and a student in the class of 2015; one is terminology. Students use terms, such as to “friend” someone, “over the Internet”, and the use of “pc” for personal computer. Faculty strain to comprehend most of the conversations between their students and still use “pc” as an acronym for political correctness. The usage change of the acronym pc, shows the mindset shift into newer technology into a more complex future.

Another difference would be pop culture. In the list, The Beloit College Mind-Set List Welcomes the ‘Internet Class’, number 60 says “Frazier, Sam, Woody, and Rebecca have never frequented a bar in Boston during prime time.” A couple of decades before the class of 2015 climbed the education ladder into college, Cheers was a hit show, but today, incoming freshmen mainly stream videos off of websites, such as YouTube, rather than sit in front of a television set and watch prime time shows with their family. Pop culture is ever-changing. It changes and without enough warning to give any given generation time to adjust.

The list also states that the class of 2015 grew up when women were gaining more independence and nearly everything being done on the Internet. For example, Mr. Nief and Mr. McBride, writers of The Beloit College Mind-Set List Welcomes the ‘Internet Class’, said, “Members of the Class of 2015 have come of age as women assumed command of U.S. Navy ships, altar girls served routinely at Catholic Mass, and when everything from parents analyzing childhood maladies to their breaking up with boyfriends and girlfriends, sometimes quite publicly, have been accomplished on the Internet.”

In the United States today, there is an ever-expanding Spanish-speaking population. Consequently, many documents now have Spanish in one or more sections. Previously the Spanish-speaking community was not given as much leeway, so few important documents had much if any Spanish in there. American tax forms, to the class of 2015, have always had Spanish available to those that spoke, read, and wrote it.

             

There are a few similarities behind the two mindsets. Today’s students dislike having to travel from a dorm to a classroom on the other side of the campus. Faculty born before 1980 also dislike traveling these distances. They would prefer their students to go through absentee education, or online learning, rather than holding a class. In other words, most teachers like to teach, and most students like to learn. But both would both prefer to use the technology that enables learning without having to travel. Another similarity is trust between teacher and student. Both have a mutual agreement that after the professors teach class, students need to be committed to learning and studying the material discussed. Although students today prefer a more socially active life, they respect what professors want for them, a better education. With that agreement, students come to respect teachers and learn not only the material they teach, but also the historical context teachers experienced.