This is not so much a teaching tip as a snapshot of our incoming first year students. For years, Beloit College published a list of things first-year students had ALWAYS and NEVER known, to provide instructors with historical touchstones, and help us avoid making embarrassingly out-of-date pop culture references in class. The operation moved to Marist College last year and is now known as the Marist Mindset. Some highlights of this year’s list:
- The Class of 2024 will explore race relations beyond Black Lives Matter, to grasp how Whiteness has shaped bias and influence in American culture today
- The Harry Potter series has been banned somewhere in the US their entire lifetime
- The necessity of personal protective equipment (PPE) will inform fashion trends for the next couple of seasons
- They are keenly aware of major threats to the health of our society created by a global pandemic and global climate crisis, but the value and veracity of science in our national dialogue is increasingly questioned.
For this year’s full Marist Mindset list, click this link.