Teaching the 1960s with Primary Sources

Abstract

ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR COURSES on college campuses and one of the time periods that still provokes considerable interest among high school students is the 1960s. Drawing on my experience as an author of several documentary collections and as a teacher, this paper will consider ways that teachers and students can use primary sources to enhance their understanding of this seminal era.1 In addition, both the text and notes of this paper identify where teachers and students can find the particular documents mentioned below and others like them.2 Numerous studies have shown that using primary sources, such as documents in a history class or laboratory experiments in science courses, encourages active learning. Primary sources compel students to interrogate the past and to begin to form their own interpretations and narratives rather than memorize facts and dates and/or digest interpretations written by others.3 Simultaneously, teachers can enhance their students' understanding of the historical method or craft by using original documents. The advantages of using primary sources in classes about the 1960s are of even greater magnitude than in courses about other periods. Many of the authors of the most widely used texts on the 1960s, and many teachers of classes on the 1960s lived through this time period and seek to shed light on it by drawing on their personal experiences. Todd Gitlin's popular book, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage, exemplifies this