What Freshman College Students Don’t Know

Each year Beloit College put out a list of characteristics of their incoming freshman so the professors can better educate them.  the call it the mindset list.  The whole list is here for the class of 2016.  Here are a couple highlights:

• Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedys, constitutes “American Royalty.”
• Having grown up with MP3s and iPods, they never listen to music on the car radio and really have no use for radio at all.
• Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
• Having made the acquaintance of Furby at an early age, they have expected their toy friends to do ever more unpredictable things.
• While the iconic TV series for their older siblings was the sci-fi show Lost, for them it’s Breaking Bad, a gritty crime story motivated by desperate economic circumstances.

There are several things that should be of interest to those of us seeking to witness to or catechize these kids as the church.  But one struck me as most obviously relevant.

• The Biblical sources of terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most of them.

We in the church, like people in any community, assumed certain jargon and knowledge to be held by those we are speaking to.  We need to be careful in this aspect.  When we are witnessing, preaching, or teaching, we need to assume very little and explain almost everything.  Short hand references to biblical narratives are a thing of the past.  We must speak about them because they are formative for the people of God, but we will have to explain what we are talking about.   We can’t just talk about getting to the Promised Land, but will have to walk them through Abraham to Joshua and then through the Cross and Tomb to the Last Day.

This mindset also must remind us of the state of in home catechesis of the faith.  It is poor.  We must work hard and put energy towards making it easy for parents to relate the stories of the bible to their children.  We in the church perhaps should do less bible study and kids programs and have more resources and materials for in home use.  The church simply cannot catechize the faithful in two hours or less every week.  Catechesis must be a daily focus of the home to have a chance of success.  So maybe we stop worrying about getting people to every bible study at church and make sure the bible is studied in the home.  We gather for worship each week, but then send people into their home resourced to learn the scripture and the practices of the faith there.  Not every bible study has to go, but our focus must be on making sure daily teaching in the home occurs.

What freshman college students don’t know could indeed hurt them and eternally so.