Understanding America
Here is another student essay suggestion from our Improbable Social Science Project. The short film "Queen of the House" encapsulates, one way and another, everything a student needs to begin understanding the world’s most proudly peculiar country, the United States of America. A teacher would do well to ask students virtually any question about how this film elucidates American culture, politics, and history then (the year 1965, when it was made) and now.
(We are grateful to the Scopitones web site for making this film available for study. Students may also want to read the words to "Queen of the House." They were written by Roger Miller and Mary Taylor. The main performer is Jody Miller.)