1977: Baking Cakes and Using Robert’s Rules of Order: Measuring Incoming Freshmen’s Nonacademic Skills
Jimmy Carter was elected U.S. president. Elvis Presley died. Star Wars (the original) premiered; Saturday Night Fever and its movie soundtrack highlighted the Age of Disco, though the Sex Pistols and The Clash released landmark punk albums in the same year. The neutron bomb was created, but a nuclear proliferation treaty curtailing the spread of nuclear weapons was signed by 15 countries including the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). South African Black anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died after torture in South African police custody, sparking international protests, a UN arms embargo, and the later release of Peter Gabriel’s protest song “Biko” (1980).
In what seems an anomaly given the time, the 1977 CIRP Freshman Survey asked whether incoming freshmen respondents could presently perform certain activities well, would like to learn them, or had no interest in learning them. The chosen activities were: typing 40+ words per minute, speaking a second language fluently, water-skiing, skiing on snow, sight-reading piano music, reading music (for singing), refereeing one or more sporting events, using a sewing machine, using Robert’s Rules of Order, scoring a tennis match, identifying many classical musical compositions by title and composer, programming a computer, using a slide rule, swimming a mile without stopping, naming the animal phyla, describing the difference between stocks and bonds, baking a cake from scratch (“no mixes”), describing the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and doing at least 15 push-ups.
This question disappears from the survey after 1977, but its answers partly illustrate 1970s gender roles: 77.9% of women respondents could bake a cake from scratch as opposed to 24.0% of men. Only 5.6% of women, compared to 47.4% of men, had no interest in learning. A total of 63.9% of women respondents could use a sewing machine well; only 9.2% of men could, and 71.7% of men had no interest in learning how. Just over half (53.4%) of women respondents could already type 40+ words per minute compared to 27.9% of men respondents. Interestingly, however, 56.7% of men indicated they would like to learn.
Some answers were more unisex. For instance, only 9.9% of men and 9.7% of women could use Robert’s Rules of Order well; the majority of both men (57.9%) and women (57.2%) had no interest in learning to do so. When asked about their ability to program a computer (which in 1977 meant using BASIC as opposed to today’s SQL, Java, C++, and so on), 9.5% of men and 4.3% of women could do so well; 67.1% of men and 56.6% of women indicated they would like to learn. A total of 28.9% of men and 18.3% of women could use a slide rule; 52.3% of men and 48.4% of women indicated they would like to learn. Only 9.7% of men and 8.1% of women could name the animal phyla, and the majority of both sexes (55.2% of men, 57% of women) had no interest in learning to do so.
Given the emphasis on sporting and cultural activities requiring enough income to afford both specialized equipment and, in the case of snow and water-skiing, access to adequate bodies of water or mountains, when disaggregated by income the responses differed strikingly. For instance, only 11.6% of those students who estimated their parents’ total income as less than $3,000 in 1977 (comparable to approximately $11,500 in 2013 when using a historical standard of living calculator) could ski “very well” on snow. However, 49.6% of those students who estimated their parents’ total income as $50,000 or more in 1977 (comparable to approximately $192,000 in 2013) could ski “very well” on snow.
When asked about water-skiing, 12.3% of those students who estimated their parents’ total income as less than $3,000 could do so “very well,” but 51.1% of those who estimated their parents’ total income as $50,000 or more could do so. And while only 7.1% of students who estimated their parents’ total income as less than $3,000 in 1977 could identify many classical music compositions by title and composer “very well,” 14.0% of those who estimated their parents’ total income as $50,000 or more in 1977 could do so. Finance education also differed by parental income; 19.2% of students who estimated their parents’ total income as less than $3,000 could describe the difference between stocks and bonds “very well,” as compared to 36.1% of those who estimated their parents’ total income as $50,000 or more.
This question is interesting in retrospect because of what it says about survey item selection’s dependence on the cultural context of its time and its designers. Why not ask if students knew how to explain football scoring rather than score a tennis match? Why ask about whether they could ski instead of play baseball, softball, tennis, or soccer? Why ask about push-ups instead of running a mile? Why ask about baking a cake from scratch rather than some other type of cooking? It serves to remind us that every survey has embedded cultural assumptions of some kind.
Did You Know?: 63.8% of incoming freshmen in 1977 agreed either strongly or somewhat that “Grading in the high schools has become too easy.”
71.5% of incoming freshmen in 1977 disagreed either strongly or somewhat that “Open admissions (admitting anyone who applies) should be adopted by all publicly-supported colleges.”
82.2% of incoming freshmen in 1977 disagreed either strongly or somewhat that “College grades should be abolished.”
