It is a new year and a new class of freshmen has arrived, but what is special about these newcomers is that they are the first generation born in the 21st century. They are the first generation of students who grew up with contemporary technology and, as a result, their childhoods may be completely different from ours.

“It’s crazy how the freshmen have lived their childhoods growing up with iPods and iPhones,” junior Ariel Schreiman said.

I feel that the class of 2018 were not able to experience the 2000s culture, such as living in a world with monthly texting limits, nonexistent smartphones and meaningless dial-up sounds.

“They missed out on those flip phones, like Motorola razors; those were pretty cool,”  senior Jacob Del Rosario said.  

It is crazy to believe that parents and teachers are expecting more from the freshman in this new school year. Since technology has played a positive role in education development, there is more critical thinking involved in their assignments and they are expected to solve creatively.

Recently, schools have been switching out the “old fashion” of schooling, for a system called Common Core. Common Core is a set of high-quality academic standards in mathematics and English.

“Even though there’s a lot expected from the freshmen, they seem more confident and relaxed compared to my class,” Del Rosario said.