PARENTS ARE TEXTBOOKS IN BABY-BOOMER HISTORY CLASS
"Why don't you kids ever listen to me?"
A group of college students is doing just that: listening very closely to their parents to gain insight on the baby-boomer generation. Students enrolled in the modern history class "Boomers to Yuppies: American Society Since 1945" at Franklin Pierce College are required to prepare a paper, based on a series of interviews with their parents, examining important events from the 1950s to the 1980s. The class is taught fall semester by Mary Kelly and spring semester by Doug Ley.
"They ask them about what they were doing during Vietnam," says Ley, "as well as during the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the dawn of Rock'n'Roll, the Reagan years and other specific events of the day."
The stage is set at the beginning of the course through textbook assignments and discussions. Reading popular novels from the 1950s, '60s and '70s, students gain an understanding of the culture of the times. They then work together to prepare questions.
Ley, a professor of history and chair of the college's humanities department, says the interviews represent the culmination of the semester:
"What most students often find surprising is how completely normal their parents were during some very crazy periods in our nation's recent history. They see historic events in a more personal way. They're also able to connect events in history with their own lives--and learn that the past is indeed alive and continues to exert influence on all of us every day."
The popular class has been offered at the private college, located in Rindge, N.H., since 1992.
For more information, call Mary Kelly at 603-899-4392, or Doug Ley at 603-899-4027.
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