1960's Day at Arlington High School

They came from all different backgrounds – one was politically active in the student movements, one was in the US Army, another grew up in the South and was active in the Civil Rights Movement – but they had one thing in common: They all came of age in the 1960's.

Yesterday, 30 members of the Arlington community, faculty and staff at the high school descended on the Arlington High School Media Center, which was decorated with posters and 1960's memorabilia as part of the third annual 1960's Day, sponsored by the Modern United States History course.

"The students are always very curious about the 1960's," said teacher Melanie Konstandakis, who organizes the event each year. "They always want to especially know about Vietnam, the music and the assassinations, and, of course, the drug culture."

The guest speakers each had their own table in the media center while the students rotated among them in groups of between 7-10 students.

The students are on the tail end of a unit covering the 1960's in the United States and for many of them, the speakers were eye opening.

"I knew about the Civil Rights movement, obviously, but I did not know just how much racial discrimination still went on," junior Courtney Roy said after she heard from Bruce Newell, now retired from a career in finance who spent the 1960's first in college and then in the army.

He told the students about his summer in army camp (he was a ROTC student) where he and his fellow American, Caucasian students were given higher marks on their performance just because of their skin. "We all knew they were better," said Newell. "But it didn't matter."

Other speakers talked about the music they liked. David Good – the head of IT for Arlington High School –brought in albums and a player from the 1960's, but also talked a lot about what it meant to lose a friend in the war in Vietnam. "It was really tough," he said. "The war really drove a wedge through families and communities. Here we all were fighting for some belief and sometimes you are not even sure if you are doing the right thing."

Barabara Watts – mother of student teacher Claudia Pafumi and retired social worker – talked about her protest experiences, particularly the one at the Pentagon. "I fell asleep, woke up and there were people running away from tear gas," she said with a laugh.

Watts was more serious when she told the students that she saw shades of the 1960's in the way people behaved when President Barack Obama was running for office. "There were so many similar fears being set off all over the country," she said.

The speakers spent a lot of time trying to apply the lessons of history to the student's current lives. And the students did the same, lining the walls of the media center with "Facebook pages" for major 1960's players like President John F. Kennedy and Mao Zedong.

"I really try to apply what I say to their real lives," says Newell who brought along his army uniform and told stories of familial discord and early dating – all historical, to be sure. But also all applicable to any teenager.

"I voted for Kennedy because my father voted for Nixon," Newell said with a laugh, acknowledging that rebellion against one's parents is not exclusive to the 1960's. "Things like this are very important. If we don't learn from history, we will repeat it."

As for the students, they were all sitting forward on their seats, paying close attention to what each of the speakers told them. "This is something you can't learn from a book," said Roy who was wearing the gold peace symbol ring – a major symbol of the 1960's -- she wears every day. 

"Everyone was so entertaining," Roy said. "I loved getting the first-hand history lesson."