My 1960’s Unit at Rivendell School in 1995

My 1960’s Unit at Rivendell School in 1995: “I’m Free, Man!” (this post is in process and will be completed soon)

In February and March of 1995, I designed and taught a unit on American history focusing on the cultural revolution of the 1960’s. Because that was my own formative era… I was in high school during 1965-67 and college during 1967-71, I enjoyed speaking from personal experience and not from some impersonal, indirect historical resource. I was given a lot of elbowroom from the Board as to how to teach my integral history courses, and so I made full use of this freedom in fulfilling my desire to make this a completely unique experience for my 7th and 8th grade students. I had so much fun teaching this Unit, and I have always felt that if a teacher has fun teaching something, then the students will naturally have fun learning it.

Popular Phrases of the 60’s. On the cover of the Unit Notebook that every student received, I printed out a number of popular mottos and sayings from that culture that would give a little flavor of that time period in America… Flower Power; Out of Sight; Ban the Bomb; Don’t Trust Anyone Over 30; Far Out; Tune in, Turn On, Drop Out; Do Your Thing; Burn, Baby, burn; One Way to Heaven; Psychedelic; Jesus Only; Get Real; God is Dead; Get Yourself Together; Black is Beautiful; Free Love; If It Feels Good, Do It; Right On; Diff’rent Strokes for Diff’rent Folks; Women’s Lib; Never Say Never; Peace, Brother; Black Power.

My Purpose Statement in my unit cover letter to the students.

 

Major Topics of Study during the Unit: 

• the renaissance of popular music;
• the Civil Rights Movement and the Jim Crow era before it;
• the Life and Ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr.;
• the Viet Nam War;
• the Moon Landing/Space Race;
• the Jesus Movement;
• Campus Protests/Student Activism;
• the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.;
• a Timeline of that decade’s major events, music, people;
• the Art world during that era;
• a Book of the Bible that was very popular during that time… Ecclesiastes;
•  A transition novel started during the previous Unit (the French Revolution), The Scarlet Pimpernel, was completed during this Unit as well.

Class Projects: 

• Putting together a “60′ sculpture” using odd and ends from around their house, fashioned into a unique sculpture that communicated something important to them;
• In small groups, composing their own protest song focused on a contemporary topic in society;
• Expand the Scarlet Pimpernel story by composing their own additional story of how the Pimpernel could have rescued other persons during that era;
• Each student composes a newscast with today’s news, with Silent Night in the background, a la Paul Simon;
• Design and produce an “Alice’s Restaurant” coffeehouse for the parents and kids of Rivendell, which included the chorus singing a couple of 60’s songs, displaying their 60’s-era artwork, readings from their own protest songs or poetry, and just enjoying the coffeehouse vibe that was such a big part of the 60’s. Every guest needed to wear either a tie-dye tshirt or bell-bottoms, maybe some “love beads,” or anything else that was characteristic of “the look” during time period.

Field Trips:

• The Viet Nam Memorial and Lincoln Memorial;
• The Goddard Space Museum where we explored various space artifacts and talked with astronauts discussing topics like the Space Race of that time and the Moon Landing in 1969.
• The Smithsonian National Gallery which had a full museum display of art from the 1960’s.

Videos: 

• The Time-Life Video Series, which was a visual documentary of all the major events and people of that era;
• The complete MLK “I Have a Dream Speech” in DC, with Mahalia Jackson singing.

Special Guests: Each week I would have some guest speakers to visit the classroom and interact with the students, people who had some unique personal experiences and thoughts about the 1960’s:

• the American Ambassador to Viet Nam during the war there;
• a policeman who had to try and keep order during the “Free Speech” demonstrations at UC-Berkeley;
• a constitutional attorney to discuss legislative highlights during that era;
• a Superior Court Judge who was called to hold trials for various lawbreakers/protesters during that time;
• a man who actually attended the original Woodstock Festival in NY in 1969;
• a nationally syndicated newspaper/magazine columnist who was known for his insightful commentary during the 1960’s;
• an author who discussed the book “Between Heaven and Hell” by Peter Kreeft, the book being an imaginary conversation between three vitally important leaders who all died on the same day, November 22, 1963… John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley.
• a close friend of Martin Luther king, Jr. who marched with him in various demonstrations for civil rights;
• a famous historian to discuss the impacts of the 1960’s cultural revolution, and discussing the turn of so many towards Eastern Religion during that time.
• a local folk singer/songwriter would come to class 2 or 3 times a week to guide the class in the genre of protest music and how they could continue that tradition in their own moments in history as well. She also helped the students get a sense of how to put together a simple melody to their own lyrics.

Popular Music: The content areas of the class were surrounded by and infused with the amazing music from that era. In many ways, the context of the class was music, which I think best communicated the personality and flavors of that era. Popular music reflected the culture and was a change agent as well. So, I would have my boom box front and center every day, with students entering class every morning to the sounds of the time, and the student exiting the class two hours later with more musical backdrop. I hope it helped the students to remember that historical era by being entrenched in its music. Some of the songs I played that I thought represented that era were:

• “Turn, Turn, Turn,” by the Byrds, especially as an introduction to our Bible Study on Ecclesiastes;
• “For What It’s Worth,” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, a very popular student protest song;
• “National Anthem,” as played by Jimi Hendrix, a classic rendition that tried to reflect the state of America;
•  “God on our Side,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and other protest songs by Bob Dylan;
• “Almost Cut My Hair,” by Crosby, Stills, etc, about letting his “freak flag fly;”
• “I Feel Free,” by Cream;
• “My Generation,” by The Who;
• “Presence of the Lord,” by Blind Faith, as well as their “Sea of Joy;”
• “Seven O’ Clock News/Silent Night,” by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, a very powerful protest song;
• “Born to Be Wild,” by Steppenwolf;
• Various music from the Jesus Movement, such as Larry Norman’s “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music,” “Better Watch What You’re Doing,” and “One Way;” also Barry McGuire’s ‘”Eve of Destruction;”
• Musical Samples of the Beatles, Beach Boys, Ray Charles, Motown;
• “Amazing Grace,” by Judy Collins;
• “When the Music’s Over,” by The Doors;
• Various spirituals and other song from the Civil Rights protests.
• “Good Christian Soldier,” by Kris Kristofferson.
• “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” by the Rolling Stones.