Classroom Discussion Questions on 1960s and 1968
Students should try to support their responses with evidence.
Overview Questions:
What is history? What is story? What makes a thing true? Do big heavy books
contain the truth? How can truth be found?
How does one put oneself in the shoes of someone who lived in the 1960s?
How do we come to understand past mindsets—or another person or
group’s mindset?
In 1968 (and the 1960s, in general) American values were up for
grabs…there was not firm ground. What did it mean to be an American? Who
were we? Who were we going to be? (Pose this question to students in
regard to the United States today.)
Is change possible? (On a world-wide level, a national level, a group level, a
personal level?)
What needed to be changed in the 1960s? What needs to be changed today?
Who do you know that lived through the 1960s? What would you like to ask
this person? (If you were 15 in 1968, you are 58 today.)
What about America should stay the same?
Vietnam:
What did the Geneva Conference of 1954 decisions do?
What happened in the Gulf of Tonkin?
What was Vietnam to a soldier, a housewife, a politician, a student...?
How did television shape our view of war in 1968?
What are the lessons of Vietnam? (Have we learned them?)
How does a national draft work? (Who is drafted? Who is eligible? How do
you avoid it? Why did the draft end? Why is there no draft today? Should
there be one?)
How might a national draft change the Iraq war?
If you don’t want to fight in a war should you?
What does it mean to be courageous?
Race:
What did 1968 show us about race in United States?
What did 1968 TV, ads, and styles say about race in America during the 1960s?
What do today’s images say about race in the United States?
How Hispanics and American Indians shift the movement for civil rights?
How did racial tensions change in the 1960s in America? In 1968?
What were Martin Luther King’s vision and Malcom X’s vision the same? How
were they different? (In your opinion, which vision has had more impact
today?)
Politics:
If politics is a series of images, what does this year say?
What national feelings led to Nixon, a has-been in January, elected as president
in November 1968?
What was the appeal of Kennedy, McCarthy, Nixon, Wallace?
How did Americans of all ages and races feel about these candidates?
Why, in your opinion, did Johnson choose not to run?
Popular Culture:
Did the 60’s free women or did the 60’s destroy the family?
Did the youth movement lead to a more just society or moral depravity?
What was the vision of the youth movement? How has this vision been
achieved or not achieved?
How did American's of all ages view protest?
What might have been the unintended outcomes of the 1968 protests?
What is your cause? (What are your beliefs, values, and ethics behind this?)
Have you ever protested? What issue might you protest?
What can popular television tell us about our values and beliefs as a nation?
How has television changed since the 1960s?
How did popular magazines like Life and Look magazine examine the changing
roles and attitudes of men and women in the 1950s and 1960s? What
products were advertised then as compared today?