The Class of 2011

[intertext]

Thanks to Carla Beard, The Web English Teacher for drawing my attention to this list of things we need to remember about the mindset of students entering college with year.

The majority of our first year students were born in 1989 (and if that doesn't make you feel old...). For them, the world has certain realities. I was particularly struck by a few:

What Berlin Wall?

They have never "rolled down" a car window

Nelson Mandela has always been free

Fava beans have always been a pop culture reference

U2 has always been more than a spy plane. (shows you how long they've been going!

Tiananmen Square is associated with an Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre

Check out the whole list - it provides quite a bit of food for thought, and reminds us teachers to be careful about our cultural references. They might not be as "obvious" as we thought!

Crossposted at RealToads (yes, yet another blog)

Comments

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Most of those are too American for me, too, but here's the ones I know

10: Pete Rose was a very famous baseball player (I think he played for the Dodgers) who got struck off for gambling (I think)

38: Lisa Bonet was a well known television personality in the 80's. The others were/are also celebrities, perhaps better known in the past than now, whose kids are now old enough to got to school.

41: obviously the Blue Man Group are not "everywhere" :) They are a somewhat surreal group of musicians/performance artist (?) known probably better for appearing in tv commercials than their "real" act. They always appear covered in blue paint.

58: Jon Stewart does "The Daily Show" (I think) - late night TV

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. I had heard of a couple of the celebs in 38, but not got the point that they now had kids of school age.

There were a few others that I hadn't really heard of (eg Illinois banning smoking), but could get from context.