WWII Propaganda - Extensive and Effective

WWII saw a significant rise in propaganda in the United State of America. It was everywhere. These public images were made to help the war effort. Some were directed at able bodied potential soldiers, while others were more focused on the home front. Some were very nationalistic and optimistic, whereas others were more dark and gave fuel for the anti-German and anti-Japanese sentiments.
Propaganda in America during the Second World War was everywhere. Some were hidden inside of newspapers, magazines, radio programs and movies and others were blatant posters or leaflets. Where ever one was, they were not far away from some sort of pro-war influence. What but the American government itself could have such reach? Under Roosevelt, the OWI, or Office of War Information was created. This had much influence and could even penetrate Hollywood which was and still is a gateway to the American public's subconscious. There was also the Writer's Board which worked both with and separately from the government. These two forces provided vast amounts of propaganda which was nearly inescapable.
There were many different propaganda themes as well. There were offensive ones, which were anti-German, anti-Japanese, and anti-Italian. These portrayed the antagonists as monsters, which was often stretching the truth, but was sometimes not far off. For instance, one poster showed a crowd of Germans at a book burning. This seems as nasty as many of the others but is completely true. There was also more lighthearted propaganda. These concerned themselves with the home front and allies, but mainly the former. Once most of the able-bodied men were already off to fight, those left at home needed encouragement and guidance. There was much propaganda which served to boost morale and also to get people involved in efforts to directly help the war, such as the famous "We Can Do It" poster promoting women in the industrial workforce marking weapons and machinery for the war. There were also warnings about how to behave, as seen in a slew of propaganda with the main message that careless talk can be heard by spies and used against the soldiers.
All of this propaganda, no matter how different from each other, was aimed at winning the war. It shows the steps that the government was willing to take to try to change people's minds and influence their decisions - something which would seem almost tyrannical without context. It is a very interesting side to the war which is often overlooked because there is not pivotal date, place, or person and no real statistics. However, it is crucial to understanding war-time America.

Ed Café: Educational, but is it worth it?

Ed Cafes are very interesting programs. They allow a variety of topics to be explored which may not have otherwise been taught in class. They also allow more peer to peer learning which is healthy. Less traditional  can sometimes work as well or better. However there are some serious drawbacks to these sessions. When there are only three or four time slots available and three or four sessions in each period, one person can only learn three or four things. It really limits the potential ground covered with everyone having researched their own topic. Also, it is problematic when it comes to evaluation. If an ed cafe were used to cover an event such as the Spanish-American War, that would be great and informative. However, if that made up the bulk of the material on the subject, it would be impossible to test students on that subject. This creates an opportunity to not pay much attention with no consequences. Furthermore, there is a lot of room for error with these. Some of the information gathered could be wrong, some may become jumbled, or with a limited amount of time some unjustified conclusions may be reached. This possibly false information is then spread unchecked and may give others a false view of the topic or over-arching subject. Even though ed cafes are unique and can be very helpful, I think all-in-all they are not appropriate for a high school environment in which there is much room for them to not be utilized to their fullest potential.