Now, if the project is simply to recite facts about each item, then yes, the teaching opportunity is lost because the song offers a chance to see how the political, social, pop culture and other forms of history feed off each other, inform and contradict each others.

For example, 1968 was an incredibly tumultuous year, between Dr. King’s assassination, RFK’s assassination, riots and other distress, but the year ended with a scientific, engineering and exploratory triumph of the Apollo 8 circumnavigation of the moon. Play those off of each other and you get a wonderful oppotunity.

I like that concept of one commenter, that using the song as poetry and how historical allusions inform poetry as much as methaphor, simile and allegory.

The secret ingredient is not that the project is done, but how it is used. Otherwise the project itself is simply neutral.

I think that it’s alright as a WRITING assignment, but NOT as a significant part of a semester grade.

When I was in 6th grade, my gifted and talented english class was given an assignment similar to this in order to learn library and research skills. We broke the song up among several groups and then did our best to figure out each lyrical reference using the resources available to us. At the time, the song was fresh and the assignment was considered pretty cool. Plus we got to spend a bunch of class time in the library on our own which was also cool.

It was cool enough that another 6th grade teacher copied it without attribution for her own class and got in trouble for it. That taught me an unintended lesson about workplace politics that I haven’t forgotten.

I agree: pre-Internet, that would have been a hard one to research for most people. (My dad was older, so I would have had an inside track to the 50s, but most of my friends’ parents were born in the early 50s. Anything before around 1965-68 was pretty much a blur to them.)

But I will say this in defense of teachers reluctantly giving crappy projects in the the month of May after AP exams: you kind of have to go with what your school culture will support. You might be amazed and/or horrified by the number of schools at which the administration as well as the kids and their parents think that school should just kind of fade out with funzies after spring break. In such a school, woe to the the teacher who holds the students’ feet to the fire of actual assignments with rigor and quality.

We’d like to think that the instructional bond would be so powerful and enduring that the kids would just keep working because the teacher was motivating and the kids loved learning. But many of the kids don’t seem to see it that way. Often you have to decide to ratchet up the value of the grades so the kids see them as important enough to complete or crank down the importance of the work so it doesn’t matter if they don’t. Occasionally and bafflingly, some people do both, like the assignment mentioned here, and that IS hard to understand. Even in the worst of circumstances, it seems like it ought to be big grade and actually worth doing in terms of learning or small grade and maybe a little silly but engaging.

I would use this song as a shining example of how historical refences can even seep into popular culture; yet another reason to be familiar with, know, and understand history. However, I cringe at the idea of placing things like this at the center of history lessons. Believe me, as one who holds a B.A. in History, there is much to history that is dry and painfully dull, YET is quite insightful and revealing, and all too necessary to comprehend and learn.