Parents’ Mindset Advisory
MINDSET LIST AUTHORS ISSUE ADVISORY FOR NEW PARENTS
Beloit, Wis. – As the world anticipates the first children born in the New Year, the parents of these 2012 arrivals should start getting ready for the questions this new generation will confront them with--before they know it.
Authors of the recent Mindset Lists of American History, based on the annual Beloit College Mindset List, Tom McBride and Ron Nief, are offering these awaiting parents a new take on the old game of “20 Questions,” a game they will surely play as they explain the present to their children, who will want some answers before they head off to College.
This “Parents’ Mindset Advisory” grows from the final chapter in their recent book, which speculates on the world that the generation currently in diapers will encounter as they graduate from high school. This new Generation Z born in 2012 will be in the high school class of 2030, growing up in a world where smart phone apps will replace computer websites and where computers will no longer use “software.” For them, the Eurozone experiment will seem far away and long ago, Facebook will have evolved into an over-50 site connecting their parents, and coastal cities will be busy planning giant seawalls.
The authors urge parents to be cautious as their children grow up. They warn: “As kids grow up, history grows along with them and what was once ‘normal’ is certain to change and seem, to the new generation, downright weird.”
THE 2012 PARENTS’ MINDSET ADVISORY:
20 QUESTIONS TO BE PREPARED FOR WHEN YOUR BABY TURNS 18.
- What was “software” and what was soft about it?
- Why do some universities fund minor-league football and basketball teams now instead of regular student athlete programs?
- What were “websites” and why did people visit them?
- What are those small metallic disks I keep finding in the attic?
- Did you ever actually change a light bulb?
- Where did all those European countries get the dumb idea of having just one currency?
- Is it true that once upon a time you actually had to type instructions into smart phones?
- Wasn’t it pretty weird when you had to wear nerdy dark glasses in order to watch 3-D television?
- Have those old people with salt and pepper ponytails occupying Wall Street always been there?
- How did people learn to play the guitar before their fingers were computer programmed?
- Do you remember when you first felt virtual wet or cold on your computer screen?
- What do you mean, our house was "under water" the year I was born?
- How did people remember the sketches on the backs of napkins without smart pens to plug into their e-pads?
- When are we going to put solar siding on the house?
- Did you actually communicate on Facebook when you were my age?
- Don’t white males want to become president any more?
- What did people in Qatar do about the heat before they put up all those artificial clouds?
- How did folks find their stray pets before insertion of GPS microchips became a part of getting them neutered?
- Do you think I’ll live long enough to ride in a space elevator?
- If we stop burning coal do you think they will stop building that sea wall around New York City?