War Games

WarGames follows David Lightman, a high school student who unwittingly hacks into WOPR (War Operations Planned Response), a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III.

The movie illustrates the very real fear of an 'imminent' nuclear attack during the late Cold War and teaches a valuable lesson in the end.

How was High School different in 1983?

How have computers and the internet changed our lives since then?

Would you like to play the game?

Vietnam: The Weight of Memory

The Vietnam War seemed to call everything into question—the value of honor and gallantry; the qualities of cruelty and mercy; the candor of the American government; and what it means to be a patriot. And those who lived through it have never been able to erase its memory, have never stopped arguing about what really happened, why everything went so badly wrong, who was to blame—and whether it was all worth it.

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1) What were our goals in Vietnam in the first place?  Why did we get involved?

2) Why is the Vietnam War still so divisive to many Americans today?

3) What is patriotism? How can a person be patriotic to their country and still hold the government accountable for its actions?

4) What motivated American men and women to serve in the Vietnam War? What would you have done during the Vietnam War? Would you have supported or opposed it? Why?

5) How does America apply the lessons that it learned in the Vietnam War to challenges facing us today?

Rockin' The Suburbs

After World War II, there was a 'Baby Boom' creating the need for more housing. Most people resorted to homes outside the cities like suburbs because there it was cheaper. These places were called "Suburbia". Every community in the suburbs were like it's own little town. They all had schools, churches and parks. The increasing popularity of the suburbs grew as the government gave GI bills to the returning veterans of World War II and the Korean War. They helped them with the mortgage and college.  Improved roads and railway transport became the new way of travel as more and more people commuted.

How was Suburban Family life reinforced on TV?

What did critics think about Suburbia?

Would you want to live here?

TV Values

What cultural values do you suppose television reflected during the 1950s? 

What cultural values does television programming reflect today?

Leave It To Beaver is a show remembered by some as an example of a simpler time in America. A time before today's modern anything-goes mentality and it's culture of crassness. A time when traditional family values ruled the day. It is remembered by others as seemingly taking place in an alternate universe that bore no resemblance to reality evenwhen it was new.

I watched a lot of Leave it to Beaver in my childhood, as it was on every afternoon in re-runs, but it wasn’t until seeing it in adulthood that I appreciated to what extent the show does not merit its reputation as a phony part of a repressive Fifties monoculture. Yes, it depicts a world that probably never existed, and yes, like most of what was on television at the time, it under-represents diversity. There are no homosexuals (although who can be entirely sure about Mr. Rutherford?), few black people, and very limited controversy. Within its contained world, however, Leave it to Beaver promotes honesty and personal responsibility over the values of social status or self-interest. It also overturns (usually, anyway) the assumption that dishonesty is an accepted, and even expected, mode of behavior.