By Jeff Burns
Students
walked into my classroom to find their desks arranged in groups. At each group of desks, they found two school
yearbooks, one from the early 1960s and one from the early 1970s. Of course, they start exploring. The first question they ask is “Are you in
these?” Seriously. I know you think I’m 75 but seriously?
But
seriously, this is how I introduced the counterculture and the tumultuous
changes in American society that occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s. We had already delved into the conformity the
1950s and the challenges to the status quo that started erupting. I heard the idea to use yearbooks, pre and
post 1965, from another teacher at a conference, and I was fortunate to find 10
yearbooks, dated 1963- 1973, at a local estate sale. Well worth $1 each.
I
put the books on the desks and my instructions were to look them over and
discuss. Compare and contrast pre 1965
and post 1965. Compare and contrast then
and now. It was a hit. All were involved. Of course they immediately
commented on clothes and hair (Beehive pictures are always a big hit.), but
their group discussions hit on all topics. Then we all shared as class. It was quite a fun activator.
One
drawback with my yearbook find is that they were all southern schools, and a
couple were from private Christian schools, so the differences between the two
time periods were kind of subtle but it also led to productive questions and
discussion about regional differences and integration. I’ll continue to be on the lookout for more
varied books in the future.
