Note from the Editor:
This past spring, I was able to draw a through line between my classes on on multiple campuses. We read sixties literature and developed sixties research papers. Week by week, we exchanged ideas about protest and change. We searched the campus databases for information about Civil Rights, the Women's Movement, Gay Liberation, the Sexual Revolution. Many students identified key people and events that shaped the future we live in today. They wrote about Martin Luther King, Harvey Milk, Gloria Steinem.
As part of the project, I encouraged students to define a term most closely associated with their topics. Several wrote papers about the Cuban Missle Crisis. In English 105, Katie Castro defined the threat of "nuclear annahilation" (see above) in the conflict between two superpowers. She explained how President Kennedy used diplomacy to avoid war with the Soviet Union. President Kennedy, by the way, the man who ordered an aggressive naval blockade to prevent the Soviets from approaching Cuba, appeared to be a popular topic of discussion Did you know that many if not most people believe there was a "conspiracy" behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy. To this day, we don’t know the truth. Perhaps we never will.
Not only did students examine important political ideas and figures, they also defined turning points in our culture and society. I was happy to read the causes and effects of "Beatlemania." Several students identified "The Pill" as the century's greatest invention. English 1A student Katherine Lee chose to define the mystique of the Ford Mustang - "Pony Car" - still running strong today, sixty years after it first appeared on the scene at the 1964 New York World's Fair.
In the spirit of collaboration, my students shared their sixties definitions on our classroom workshops and descussion boards. Our goal was to add important dimension and meaning to our essays. Our best defintions we publish in Jay's Semester of Love Sixties Research Dictionary. To see student work, please scroll down the right-hand menu bar.
Jay Lewenstein
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