Time Warp

This from Inside Higher Ed, a stark reminder of how quickly the culture now moves.

It's well worth a read, as it is a guide to a college faculty about the world-view the incoming freshmen hold as they arrive to campus.

A few highlights include:

The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.

They have never used a card catalog to find a book.

Margaret Thatcher has always been a former prime minister. (n.b.--That's assuming they know the name 'Margaret Thatcher'.)

Salsa has always outsold ketchup.

Earvin "Magic" Johnson has always been HIV-positive.(Ditto--most will have never heard of Magic Johnson, fewer still Kareem...)

Rap music has always been mainstream. (OldSouth having an episode of anxiety-induced tachycardia on this one...)

On the one hand, it's humorous, on the other it's a bit chilling.

How do we keep a culture functioning that (a) moves so quickly, and (b) has such a short memory?

This March, I was conducting a select choir of high-schoolers through a jazz-tinged composition. At one point I asked the girls to inject some 'Pointer Sisters' inflection into the passage. Dead, stunned, uncomprehending silent response, as it dawned on me not one of the 150 kids had heard of the Pointer Sisters. I recovered, and said, 'OK, you do know who Beyonce is?' All faces lit up, and they sang the passage like angels.

It was a valuable lesson in how far I had fallen behind, and in how little even these best and brightest kids were connected with even the past 40 years of pop culture, much less the mainstream culture of the West.

The process of teaching and learning can never be allowed an interruption, at any age.

This is OldSouth, pointing the finger at himself...