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Class of 2014 Doesn't Know Cursive, and Other Facts

But they do know Fergie ... the singer, right?

By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 17, 2010 9:32 AM CDT

(Newser) – US News & World Report is ready to shock us all with its Best Colleges 2011 ranking, which places Harvard smack dab on top. Again. But—news alert!—Princeton has tumbled from tying the venerable Crimson to No. 2. That list, which you can see here, doesn't wow us quite so much as does another annual list released today: Beloit College's Mindset List, which gives us a snapshot of the realities and events shaping the lives of this year's freshman class, born in 1992. Some highlights:

  • The majority don't know how to write in cursive.

  • They have never had trouble understanding what a "caramel macchiato" is.
  • Clint Eastwood is some guy who directs movies.
  • Fergie is a member of the Black Eyed Peas, not the British Royal Family.
  • Czechoslovakia has never existed.
  • The Post Office has always been basically broke.
Click here for the complete 75-item list (Buffy and Barney and Beanie Babies, oh my!).
No. 12: The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to go ahead, make my day.
No. 12: The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to "go ahead, make my day."   (AP Photo/ABC)
No. 42: Potato has always ended in an e in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.
No. 42: Potato has always ended in an "e" in New Jersey per vice presidential edict.   (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)
No. 14: Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.
No. 14: Doctor Kevorkian has never been licensed to practice medicine.   (AP Photo/Richard Sheinwald, file)
No. 1: Few know how to write in cursive.
No. 1: Few know how to write in cursive.   (?quinn.anya)
Tom McBride, left, and Ron Nief, creators of the list, pose for a photo on the campus in Beloit, Wis. on Monday Aug. 16, 2010.
Tom McBride, left, and Ron Nief, creators of the list, pose for a photo on the campus in Beloit, Wis. on Monday Aug. 16, 2010.   (AP Photo/Courtesy Beloit College)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 34 comments
The I?s??????
Aug 18, 2010 4:21 AM CDT
I am almost 20 years old, and use cursive exclusively. So did some of my friends in high school. Most used print, but I'd say 20% to a third used cursive, or at least some form of joined handwriting. Cursive should not become a lost art. I can write two to three times faster than the average person using print, and cursive is simply more personal and expressive. It can be ugly with some people, but with practice, it is more beautiful than any form of print handwriting.
DGCA
Aug 17, 2010 11:52 PM CDT
Class of 2022: Cursive is a band my friend's hipster parents listened to.
ebcooper
Aug 17, 2010 9:39 PM CDT
I taught 180 students(High School) per day last year, 5 could write in cursive and I realized during the 2003- 2004 school year the vast majority can not read cursive writing. Now our geniuses are those that are the more astute in technology(clickers and typist) As opposed to assisting in learning,calculators and computers have dumbed the education process all the way down and of course, our school boards are comprised of everything but educators. In fact they are the only board in this country not made up of it's kind.For example, Dental Board...dentist: Medical Board...medical doctors,,,and ect....
US

 
college rankings • Beloit College • Mindset List • Harvard • Princeton • US News & World Report • freshmen

 
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