Government Propaganda or Public Awareness Campaign? Duck and Cover... That's Edutainment!

in #education7 years ago

As a teacher, I feel my number one job is to help my students to develop their ability to think. To be honest, the exact content I teach is insignificant compared to the importance of helping my students to develop their critical thinking skills. My students can literally look up anything about World History that they would like without even having to pause the music they are listening to on their pocket sized computers.

But thinking... there is no App for that... yet.

Because my students have disabilities in reading and writing, it can be difficult to find appropriate materials to inspire deep critical thought. Luckily for me, I have a DVD player, the trust of my bosses, and the freedom to be creative.

One topic that really allows my students to develop and show off their thinking skills is the Cold War.



After a very brief introduction to the topic to ensure everyone is on the same page, I show my students the film Duck and Cover (1951). Actually, it is more accurate to say I turn my classroom into Mystery Science Theater 3000 for a few minutes so we can crack a few jokes at the absurdity of the film Duck and Cover.



Here are some of my favorite parts to make fun of:

1:50- The narrator compares an atomic bomb blast to a fire or a car crash. I normally hit the students with, "Yeah its just like a car crash... or 1 million car crashes all at the same time!!!"

2:29- Narrator "If you are not ready and did not know what to do, it could hurt you in different ways. It could knock you down hard, or throw you against a tree...". At this point I always add "Or it could turn you to ash!"



2:52 The narrator compares a nuclear explosion to a sun burn. He says "A nuclear blast can burn you worse than a terrible sunburn". Again I point out, "Yes. Much worse. Because sunburns don't turn you to ash!"


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Come on Jimmy. Put on your sunscreen. We are going to grandma's and you know how she likes to set off those nuclear explosions after dinner.

3:30 In addition to laughing about the fact that the kids wear nice dresses and shirts and ties everywhere (even when playing sports), I always pause the video here to ask, "When can a bomb explode?"

My class responds with, "At any time!"


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Yep at any time! Even if you are playing baseball in your Sunday best.

4:31 The narrator encourages a young girl to seek out an adult man (whom she does not know) in the event of an emergency. It then shows the two enter a dark shelter (basement). For this one I usually whip up the most sarcastic voice I have and say something like "Find a stranger and go somewhere dark with him."


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That place looks dark and menacing. Come on. Let's go.

5:10 Some older boys (who are waring ties of course) are showing their fellow students how to duck and cove run the hallway.


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I always point out that it really looks like they are about to kick this kid.


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This fine young man is showing the other students exactly where to kick the other boy.

6:00 Again as the narrator explains that a bomb could drop anytime and anywhere, I pretend to be the mother and say "By kids, hope you don't get hit by a nuclear bomb today."


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By kids. Have a great day. I hope a nuclear bomb doesn't fall on you anywhere at anytime.

6:10 I simply yell "Wham!" when the boy knocks his sister into the wall.



6:45 In case the kids still don't get it, the narrator again points out that a bomb can fall any time day or night... even on the way to your Cub Scout meeting. Here I point out that the kid appears to slam his face into the curb. When the narrator points out how still the child is laying, I shout, "Because he's knocked out!"



7:42 Is my favorite! Not only does the big voice narrator guy again say that the bomb can fall on "Sundays, holidays, or vacation days" he explains how you can protect yourself from a nuclear blast with a newspaper. Yes a NEWSPAPER! When I point that out, my students always lose it and we need to pause for them to regain their composure.



Ooooo there's a sale at Penny's... and we're all dead.

But the cherry on top of all of this, has nothing to do with "safety" or nuclear weapons at all. At the 8:20 mark, I pause the video and point out the boy in the bottom left of the screen.


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Everybody is going to see this! Johnny is going to be famous!

I explain to my students that this film was intended to be seen by every grade school student in the U.S. Then I proceed to tell them that I am sure every parent of the children in the film was so proud. They probably called up all of their friends and family members to brag about how little Johnny was going to be famous! He was going to be seen by millions of people! How exciting!

Then at 8:26 mark, Johnny does this...



They lose it. Sometimes the students beg me to rewind. I do.

I have them right where I want them. The students are all laughing and engaged.

Then I get serious and say, "Now obviously I am biased and think this film is very silly. If it is so ridiculous, why do you think students in the 1950s and 1960s were required to watch this film?"

I always get the same two answers.

One students will say, "It is to keep people calm and convince them they will be OK."

Invariably, another student will answer, "No. They are trying to scare people."

Using these two answers I am able to lead a very interesting classroom discussion about how both answers can be correct. (Personally, I think being able to see value in opposing arguments is one of the greatest signs of intelligence.)



They wanted people to feel safe. They wanted people to feel scared.

This year, one student summed up the conversation with, "Maybe the government wanted people to be a little bit scared but not so scared that they panicked all the time".

Not bad.

Not only does showing this video allow my students to exercise their thinking skills, it helps them to understand why the American public was so willing (perhaps eager) to spend money to fight Communism during the 1950s and 1960s.

When we cover topics like the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, my students always make the connection between the fear of an atomic bomb being dropped and the public's willingness to spend tax dollars to help prevent it.

It also helps them to understand why so much money and effort was put into the space and arms race.

Does that make this expenditure of resources ok? Does our government do anything similar today?

That is for them to decide.

I guess they are just going to have to think about it.

But let's get back to the question in the title of this post. Is Duck and Cover part of government propaganda or a public awareness campaign?


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The first line of the wikipedia page about this film reads "Duck and Cover is a civil defense social guidance film that is often popularly mischaracterized as propaganda."

"Popularly mischaracterized as propaganda" huh?

Wikipedia (siting Oxford Dictionaries Online) defines "propaganda" as "information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view".

Wikipedia defines a "social guidance film" as "a genre of educational films attempting to guide children and adults to behave in certain ways."

So I will leave that question to all of you.

Do you think the film Duck and Cover was government propaganda or a public awareness campaign?


Image 1

All other images and gifs are from the the 1951 film Duck and Cover which is now public domain.

Duck and Cover Film on Wikipedia

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I learned to not climb up a tree and attempt to blow up a turtle because you'll end up doing no harm to the turtle and killing yourself

Thank goodness you picked up on that. Not climbing trees with explosives was actually the main learning target of the lesson. Since I started teaching this lesson ,There has not been a single incidence of any student climbing a tree to blow up a turtle. Coincidence? I think not! You're welcome students!

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Great article, haha I cant believe they taught that. Its like teaching that we are the reason for climate change, when all the planets are going through chaotic weather. hahah yeah, thats our fault to right. Propaganda bullshit, scare the masses with useless tactics~

Yeah I just want my students to not automatically believe everything they hear. It very well may be true but they
Need to do their own research to dig a little deeper.

So glad to hear,I thought schools stopped teaching critical thinking and speculation! Keep it up and the younger generations will have a great platform to work from!

Thanks! Part of it is getting them to question me. I mean in this activity I admitted how biased I was. They need to be looking good for that bias when it is not in the open.

Entheogenic plants worked great for me! Dropped right outta school haha
But everyone is different. Plants have taught me much. So has vibration through music. ;) Get the students forced to do something they suck at, like pick up a new instrument. I always find that helpful in my learning. To keep me on my toes, WE get comfortable with things we are good at!

Yeah, I cannot believe that in the cold war they were teaching people what to correctly do should a bomb go off, I cannot believe that people were so dumb and we are so much smarter, everyone knows that an atomic bomb turns everything to ash, duh!

haha yeah, or it will son after from the radiation! HIDE under your desk haha

Radiation will turn you into ash later if not sooner, because nukes.

Don't do anything, you're already dead, just look at the blast and welcome death, stoopid people of the 50's and 60's and government using useless tactics like propaganda to scare people, because everyone knows drugs are bad ok, and propaganda doesn't work.

This movie is a classic. I love your analysis of it. We use to have a lot of fun too when watching it. Like everything governmental it is propaganda. Anyway, that was a fun read.

Thanks! I'm glad you got the joke. I was going for a humorous post with a very small glimpse of a bigger lesson. I was worried that by combining the two, I may have buried the fun. I needed this feedback. Thank you!

@hanshotfirst you have a very interesting way of teaching I think its great and reckon if I had a teacher like you I would of learned alot more and played more attention at school. I remember them using this film for demonstrations on what one should do during a earthquake, haha but watching this will never be the same after your post. I also wanted to thank you for your kind donation on helping out a minnow I really need all the help I can get your kindness means alot, I also want to give back to the community and hope you will be pleased your donation will go all towards powering up, thanks again.

I do try to make learning fun. A lot of my students have really been beaten down and could easily give up. I hope to reignite their passion for learning. At the very least, I want them to have a positive experience in my class.

I am thrilled that you powered it up!!! You already are giving back by making encouraging comments on people's posts. For a minnow that isn't earning a lot of rewards yet, those comments really keep them going. Thank you for doing that!!

seems to me that a lot of people got hurt making this movie

Oh boy I hope not! But it sure looked like they could have.

The more I think about it, the more I'm in "not propaganda" camp.

Here's my reasoning. Imagine you're a government (and temporarily excuse my composition fallacy). If you know there is a high probability of nuclear war, you need to figure out how your country is going to survive it. Whether you're a benevolent government or not, the way you educate your public is going to have a real impact on how well your country survives the war. So you take stock of certain facts:

  1. People too close to the blast will all die, and no amount of public awareness will change that.
  2. People downwind of the blast but far enough away to survive the actual explosion will all die if they don't get underground.
  3. People upwind of the blast but far enough away to survive the actual explosion will be horribly burned and all die if they stand there like dopes looking at the explosion. However, if they can get some concrete between them and the blast and stay there for a little while, they'll survive without any adverse effects.

It seems to me that "duck and cover" is really meaningfully helpful for the 3rd point. The details of how people respond to a bomb going off really really matter for anybody who's outside the immediate blast area, and if you can educate your people on the right way to respond, you'll save many more people. This film, silly as it is (a newspaper is probably not the best radiation shield), does actually provide meaningful ways to survive certain aspects of a nuclear blast.

Great response! Excellent points. You are right they had to do something. We do have to remember that this was made for kids... in the 1950s. Much of the humor derives from how dated it was. In addition the nuclear weapons used then were much different than ours now.

And honestly, perhaps it intentionally or unintentionally served two purposes.

I have 2 "Duck and Cover" jackets, and now they are going to remind me about this film every time I wear them :-D I almost lost it when I heard about the newspaper :-) You can tell that it is pure propaganda just by the number of times "duck and cover" is repeated. I must say, though, that propaganda films and shows have evolved a lot since the 1950's! Great post!

Thanks! If my kids aren't laughing by the time they show the picnic... they definitely are after.

Very clever teacher. Its a shame other teachers don't try and make there classes more fun then children will get involved

Thanks! I happen to be pretty lucky. I work with a lot of creative people and my school has the resources needed to support creativity. Wish that were the case everywhere.

Its a shame more thought doesn't go into teaching

I left teaching at the onset of Dubya's No Child Left Behind. Scripted lessons and teach-to-the-test became de rigour. Teachers quit in droves.

Its a shame and wrong. Making a lesson fun will keep children's attentiion

Teaching is like everything there can be 90% of a group who are great... but the 10% are what people hear about and remember.

I would have enjoyed my classes better if the teacher had made them fun and interesting

Me too. It's also about leadership - winning hearts and minds - instead of "Do as I say because I'm the teacher".

When I was at school, the teachers never took an interest the kids, never got to know us, never validated us. Had they done so our experience of school would have been dramatically better.

I totally agree with that

Thanks for this - terrific post, superbly written. Clearly, the highlight is little Johnny picking his nose - bless his cotton socks :)

LOL. Yeah I love that part! How do you think his parents felt when they saw it. Personally I'd laugh... but it's not 1951.

Who nose what they thought? (Sorry :))

Lol well played!