ERIC Number: EJ863639
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 19
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1535-0584
EISSN: N/A
"The Teenage Terror in the Schools": Adult Fantasies, American Youth, and Classroom Scare Films during the Cold War
Garrison, Joshua
American Educational History Journal, v36 n1 p3-21 2009
Unrealistic as they may have been, television shows like Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet served important social purposes during an age of tumult and anxiety. The domestic sit-coms of the 1950s played an educative function by reinforcing and disseminating traditional values at a time when forces of change were becoming quite disruptive. Though television shows, books, and movies certainly exert educative influence, it is important to note that the media's campaign against young people was also pursued in formal educational settings. Due to the sheer number of classroom films that were produced during the Cold War period, the author reviews several dozen films that focus on "troubled" youth and the problems adults expected them to face as teenagers in the 1950s: drugs, crime, gangs, fast driving, dating, and sex. The author also examines the role played by classroom scare films during Cold War's "Youth Scare." (Contains 3 notes.)
Descriptors: United States History, War, Social Systems, Political Attitudes, Foreign Countries, Adolescents, Television Viewing, Television, Content Analysis, Mass Media Effects, Mass Media Role, Socialization, Urban to Suburban Migration, Values, Films, Class Activities, Children, Baby Boomers, Context Effect, Time Perspective, Social Problems, School Security, Violence, Age Differences
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Publication Type: Information Analyses; Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United States; USSR
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A