Mainstream vs. Counterculture

1. Mainstream vs. Counterculture A look at the culture of the 1960’s

2. Preview • What are the key differences between your parents’ generation? • Do differences help create harmony or conflict?

3. 1960’s Historical context • Political, social, and cultural strife • Vietnam protests • Civil Rights protests, demonstrations, riots • Assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. • Counterculture led mostly by youths challenged traditional thinking held by the mainstream culture • Many envisioned a world based on individual expression, freedom from tradition, love, community, sex, drugs, and rock and roll • Some spoke avidly against the Vietnam War

4. Resistance to counterculture • A time where jobs, money, job, and responsibility were less important than the spirit of love, togetherness, and harmony with nature • They argue that the political activism of the 1960s led to societal changes • Counterculture had a negative influence on American society • The movement opened the floodgates to a permissive society where drug use and sexual disease is rampant and where belief in traditional values is scorned

5. five Topics will be debated….. • Fashion • Communal Living • Political activism • Music • Drugs • Overall question: Were the effects of the counterculture on American society positive or negative?

6. Instructions • You will be in groups of four: two will represent the mainstream while the other two counterculture • You will be provided prompts to promote your discussion • Mainstream will go first by repeating the statement and then a discussion • You will have two minutes to discuss • Counterculture will repeat the same process with their opening statement

7. Instructions continued…. Be respectful of each other Disagreement is expected but don’t be critical of a person Don’t take criticims of your ideas as a personal attack Listen to each other even if you don’t agree Change your mind when there is supporting evidence Try to understand both sides of the debate

8. Consensus • Once both positions have been presented (at the end) • Generate an consensus report on the original question: Were the effects of the counterculture on American society positive or negative?

9. structured controversy • Structured controversy can enhance the development of many skills that are central to academic learning. These skills include: • searching for information and new experiences to resolve a dilemma or an uncertainty; • organizing information; • preparing an advocacy position and rationalizing the position; • seeing issues from a different perspective and learning to debate the merits of each position; and • synthesizing issues and conceptualizing a new position or reaching consensus based on careful analysis and evaluation of all positions of the issue. • By using structured controversy, students' curiosity for searching for solutions to the problem will be sparked, engaging them in active learning that will help develop their understanding and appreciation of diverse points of views. It also requires students to use complex reasoning and critical thinking skills. As a result, students are exposed to a greater range of ideas that will help them to generate creative solutions and new conclusions to their controversial problem • . http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Zainuddin-Controversial.html

10. Pedagogical implications • How might a structured controversy be useful in a social studies classroom? • What are the benefits of this method? • Are there any potential drawbacks? • Why is the consensus aspect of debating essential and key in understanding issues? • How might you pair students?