I’m going to take this opportunity to say how much I despise the Beloit “Mindset List.” The whole “blank has never (or always) been blank” statement is so offensive. The assumption that students know nothing of history (social or political), or cannot comprehend it is ridiculous. Also, are we to assume that everyone in the class of “whatever year the list is geared to” have the same background? Is “’Ctrl + Alt + Del’ is as basic as ‘ABC’” to a kid who’s family couldn’t afford a computer (never mind if they could afford one that could fit in their backpack), has “There always been a screening test for AIDS” to an international student? Aren’t these same kind of generalizations about how people of one category (in this case, age) think or act the same as the assumptions at the base of racism and sexism?

I don’t really see the point of the list either. They say it’s to “slow the rapid onset of ‘hardening of the references,’ in the classroom,” but really it looks more like an “arn’t we cleaver” fluff list for adults to chuckle at their own superiority over. There’s no freshening of references here, just bland generalizations.

I think the list makes Beloit look more pompous than it already is, and I cringe every time I hear it brought up. That’s my rant. I hates it, it burns us. Nothing makes me madder than some pompous blow-hard telling me what I know.