When I finished reading the UMBC 1968 year book “SKIPJACK”, to my surprise I found that every student in the pictures was very formally dressed, which was very different from the style we can see in college today. It makes me wonder if the Style Shift will have an impact on the modern college experience.
Back into the late 1960s, college education was only for the upper-class people, those who were wealthy or the elites in the society, and that’s why the style of the students in the late 1960s was shirts and trousers and ties, for ladies were skirts no shorter than knees.
Now college education is available to everyone in any social class, and the style of how students dress themselves has clearly showed this shift.When we enter a classroom, we can see students in various casual styles: tees with funny pictures, sports shorts, hot pants, jeans, slippers and flip-flops. Not only students’ style has changed, but also the style of the teachers has changed too. Nowadays some of the teacher also starts to wear in casual style, shirts and jeans, or sometimes t-shirts.
I think that the style shift may lead students to an attitude shift towards the college education. Back into the late 1960s, those young adults from upper class families might treat college experience more seriously and focus on school works; they might think that college is for an evolution of themselves, which will take them to the next stage of life. But in nowadays, people may not think this way. Refer to my experience, I heard cell phone rings in class and people will just walk out and talk, or student who brings laptop to class and spend the whole class checking Facebook or Twitter.
I used to think that the style shift is a good thing because it shows that college education is open to everyone, which is a social improvement. But now I have to ask myself, does the style shifting really benefit modern college experience?
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