Re: our students

["Theresa Ammirati" <tpamm@conncoll.edu>]

Re: Kate Pritchard's son's letter-- a clever bit of tit-for-tat.  But I have
one quibble:  anyone who grew up in Brooklyn, NY, between 1944 and 1964
does, indeed, know what stickball is--and several have been known, even at
their advanced ages, to still eye broom handles somewhat predatorially.  The
two-sewer home lives in memory, even in places where street sewers are
non-existent.  Theresa Ammirati
-----Original Message-----
From: Kate Pritchard <kap@mail.wsu.edu>
To: wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
Date: Monday, August 31, 1998 2:22 PM
Subject: our students


I recently received the posting about the social context of students
just entering college.  After sharing it with my son, an 18-year-old
first-year college student, he responded with the following:

As we prepare for the beginning of another academic year, these facts
may help us to remember the social context of the people who teach us.

Many of the people who are teaching college this fall across the nation
were born between 1946 and 1964.

They have no meaningful recollection of the Charles I era, and did not
know he had ever been executed.

They were pre-pubescent when the Korean War was waged.

The Panic of 1907 is as significant to them as the Era of Good Feelings.

There have been only two Japanese Emperors.

They can only really remember one English monarch.

They were 4 when the USSR fist tested an atomic bomb, and do not
remember the Great Depression.

They have never lived under totalitarianism.  "The Long March" is a
missile to them, not a historical event.

NKVD is just a bunch of letters.

They have known only one Italy.

They are too young to remember the U-2 shot down, and Prague Spring
means nothing to them.

They do not know who Michael Collins was.

Their lifetime has always included genocide.

They have never had swine flu, and likely, do not know what it is.

Futurism predates them, as does photography.  The expression "A pennys
a pound the world round" means nothing to them.

They have likely never played stickball, and have never heard of it.

There has always been Marxism, and Maoism is not new.  Anarchism may
have special meaning.  What do you mean there used to be Hegelianism?

They may have heard of a Victrola, but chances are they have never
actually seen or heard one.

NATO was introduced when they were 1 year old.

They have always had a telephone.

Most have never seen a TV set the size of a chest of drawers, nor have
they seen a cylindrical wax LP

They have always had light bulbs.

There have always been movies, but they have no idea what the Brighton
School was.

They were born the year that COMECON was introduced by the CCCP.

Driving has always been "in a car" for them.

They have never heard of the Hanseatic League, East India Co., South
Seas Co., or White Star.

Dada is what Marcel Duchamps son called him.

They have no idea when or why corsets were cool.

Radio has always had frequency modulation.

They have never seen or remember a pro sports team like the Washington
Capitols, South Philadelphia Hebrew Association, Cleveland Rosenblums,
Pittsburgh Ironmen, Chicago Stags, Providence Steamrollers, Cleveland
Rebels.

They do not consider the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers "expansion
teams."

They have never seen Knute Rockne play, and isnt Bob Cousy an
announcer?

The World War I is as ancient history to them as the Russian, American,
or even the English Civil Wars.

They have no idea that Holy Roman Empire officials were ever
defenestrated in Prague.

They dont know who Dr. Caligari was or where he came from.

They have never heard the phrases "54, 40" or fight,"  "Join or Die,"
or "Pedicaris alive or Raisuli dead."

They do not care why Sacco and Vanzetti were executed and have no idea
who Sacco and Vanetti were.

Ma Perkins, Just Plain Bill, Amos n Andy, and The March of Time are
shows they have likely never heard of.

King Tutankhamens tomb was found?  I thought we always knew where it
was.

New Hampshire and New York have always been "new."

They cannot remember the St. Louis Bombers ever winning a NBA
championship, or even being in one.

Waterloo, Odessa, and Toledo are places in Europe, not America, and they
have no idea Cincinnati is named after a Roman statesman.