ABSTRACT
One of the nightmares new history teachers face is ending up an ineective social studies educator along the lines suggested by the classic Hollywood žlm, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Droning on about the Great Depression to a class of unresponsive and disengaged students, Ferris’ teacher, though in front of a classroom and ostensibly seeking to teach his students, seems to be speaking only to himself when he declares:
In the 1930s the Republican-controlled House of Representatives in an effort to alleviate the effects of the . . . Anyone? Anyone? The Great Depression, passed the . . . Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered? Raised tariffs in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work, anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work and the country sank further into the Great Depression . . .
