Summer is here, and like many others, I've build up a collection of books I plan to read during the hot season including but not limited to Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, and World of Wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Working at a bookstore allows me to get books at a nice discount. But not everyone gets to have that luxury, or even have the funds, to afford books like these. Enter the public library, a hub which allows you to check out a whole array of titles, as well as movies, games, magazines and more, be it for pleasure or for research. Sadly, public libraries have been the subject of many attacks, either by groups who want to see books removed from their shelves or by the government in the form of budget cuts and creating unbelievable restrictions on who can enter them. Libraries are vital to communities and should be protected at all costs. If you have a public library in your area, go show them some love by getting a library card, participating in events they hold, buying books from them whenever they're selling them, and even donating books if they accept them. But what if you've never been to a library before, and want to know all the inner workings of finding books, articles, and so forth? Well that's where the subject of today's retrospect comes in. Granted much of it is outdated with the marching of technology, but a lot of it still applies.
The Mind's Treasure Chest was a 1991 edutainment film about all the things you need to know when doing research at a library. The film is the creation of Learn Television, who you've probably never heard of before, but I'm sure you've heard of something they've done well after this. I'll get to that later on. The purpose of an edutainment piece is, obviously, to give teachers time to take a breather from their students to entertain their audience while also educating them in the process. Some pieces of media do this with perfection, like Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, while others have their edutainment series be a poorly-disguised author tract, like *INSERT YOUR OWN CONSERVATIVE CARTOON SERIES HERE*. So where exactly does this fit into the edutainment spectrum? We're about to find out. If you wish to see the film for yourself, you can check it out right here on Youtube. But if you wanna add something to your Summer reading list, then read on.
The film opens in an English class where the teacher, Mrs. Kim, asks the class about what Huck Finn learned from Jim throughout his journey. Many raise their hands, but she calls on a student who didn't look prepared to answer. The student tries to stall for time as he anxiously eyes the clock, waiting for the bell to dismiss them. As he stumbles on his words, a particular hand gets raised that gets the attention of the class and of Mrs. Kim. This is Jack Patterson, our protagonist. Jack, donning a suit and having a briefcase on his desk, starts a give a rousing yet very hollow answer of how Jim taught Huck how to be a man through things such as leadership skills, an understanding of telecommunications, and a love of democracy and freedom. Before Mrs. Kim can start questioning Jack on what he's talking about, the bell, which sounds like a game show buzzer for some reason, goes off and the class dismisses, with the students giving Jack an applause and high fives for his answer. Mrs. Kim has a one-on-one with Jack talking about how none of what he said made any sense, notably that Huck wouldn't know what telecommunications is since the story took place in the 1860s. Jack tells her that it's not about what you say, it's how you say it before heading towards the door. Before he can leave though, she tells him that it's not just about how he says it but what he says too, because one day he'll be saying something important, and people will need to trust and believe him. Jack takes these words of warning as words of encouragement, writing down "People will trust and believe you. -Mrs. Kim" on a notepad, adding that he won't forget about this when he gets into congress.
Still a better pick than RFK Jr, am I right?
If you haven't figured it out by now, Jack is a politician, with his own security detail and everything. And it's not just any position that he's vying for, it's the highest position of the school: Student Council President. Students are lined up by the lockers chanting his name as his assistant Bobby (played by Clark Carmichael) opens a locker to reveal a makeshift vending machine selling candy bars promoting Jack's run, and also assists Jack on who certain students are to make Jack look good when he talks to them. Passing by them is Richard Manhouse, Jack's opponent who takes the stance of being "the smart choice". Bobby assures Jack that he's leading Richard by 12 points in the cafeteria polls, and I know how much we love political polls here on ResetERA. A news reporter tries to get an interview with Richard as his campaign manager Howie was expelled for going through a teacher's desk after school. Richard says he had nothing to do with it and leaves as the reporter tries to press him more on the issue. When the scene is clear, Jack takes the profits of the vending machine and empties it into his briefcase, which is shown to have nothing but quarters in it. Jack sees a boy (I think his brother? they never really made it clear who he was) walk by and he throws him a bar, landing it perfectly in the boy's innerjacket pocket. As the boy leaves, a teacher, Mr. Ekenwall (the name doesn't come up until later but I don't wanna keep referring to him as 'the teacher') comes into view, which causes Jack to rush putting his suit jacket and case into the locker and enter Ekenwall's room before he locks the door behind him. The camera cuts to a trio of girls taking their gum out in unison, likely to show that this guy means business, as it then cuts to Jack flipping through his notebook, which consists of drawings with him and JFK, and one with his face on Mt. Rushmore replacing Roosevelt. Before Ekenwall can start his lesson, one student tries to get into the room, but Ekenwall simply gives him a look as the student walks away dejected.
Damn, teach. That's cold.
This is a US History class, and as Ekenwall starts the lesson on World War II, he notices Jack scribbling in his notebook, which is something Richard also notices. Ekenwall stands over Jack and asks if he would like to teach the class, which gets a lot of looks from the other students. Richard takes advantage of this and answers the question about the US and Japan, getting in a sly shot at Jack in the process. After the class, many of the other students give Jack disparaging looks. Jack doesn't seem to learn his lesson from the gaffe as he's repeatedly caught scribbling in his notebook and getting asked the same question about teaching the class every time. Soon the high fives that he would receive from other students in the hallways become looks of ridicule and laughter. A class ends with Ekenwall telling everyone to prepare for the lesson of JFK and the events involving Cuba happening tomorrow, which Richard seems to be happy about. Alone in the hallway, Bobby tells Jack that the lead in the polls is gone, all because Jack keeps scribbling in class. Questioned on why he does it, Jack says it's because he's bored. Bobby tells Jack he needs to at least pretend to listen, but Jack doesn't want to because he doesn't want to get called on and look like an idiot (and I can already tell more than half of you reading this had the same thought of "Doesn't stop *INSERT MEMBER OF GOP HERE*"). Bobby tells him with the election the day after tomorrow, Jack needs to do something spectacular if he still wants to win this. Jack recalls Ekenwall asking him if he wants to teach the class and tells Bobby to wait for him in the car, because he's going to the library to get ready to teach that class, and starts walking to the library with determination...before Bobby tells him the library is the other way.
"Nice place. Lot of...lot of books here."
Jack takes out a volume of an encyclopedia to find JFK to the disturbance of the others on the table. He's aghast that he can't find JFK in the J section, with the girl across from him, Samantha (like Ekenwall, we hear her name later but I don't wanna keep referring to her as 'the girl'), saying he should look under the K section of the book. Jack takes the advice and is happy to find 5 pages on JFK, which he thinks will be enough to teach a whole hour. She mentions the history class as she's in the same class, and after a discussion reveals that she thinks Jack has no chance beating Richard in the election. Jack takes umbrage to this and goes to walk out with the encyclopedia, which causes the alarms to go off, getting the others at the library to laugh at Jack's blunder. Jack learns that you can only check out a reference work such as an encyclopedia at closing time. Jack sits back at the table with Samantha and after a long silence, asks for her help, and she tells him the first thing he can do is read the article in the encyclopedia. We get a quick cut of Bobby waiting by the car in the lot before going back into the library, where Jack learns about the failed Invasion to overthrow Castro. Jack is shocked to learn this as he thought Kennedy was never one to make mistakes. Continuing reading the article, he learns that the country almost went into nuclear war in 1962 and wants to know more about it. Samantha tells him he needs to look it up in another book, sarcastically adding "It's a long shot, but they are here." Jack looks to get another book, but comes back after seeing the books aren't in alphabetical order. Samantha tells him he needs to look in the card catalogue.
"King of Spain, King of England, King of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds..."
Using the card catalogue, Jack is able to find a book called "Kennedy's Biggest Mistakes" (not a real book btw) and checks out the section called "The Bay of Pigs Invasion", which is about the failed invasion mentioned earlier. Jack reads about how the invasion had been authorized by the previous President, Dwight Eisenhower, as the audio switches from Jack reading the book to himself to fictional dialogue, mind drama as the credits call it, between Kennedy and an advisor, about how the plan is sound and everyone is assuring that the invasion will work. Kennedy decides to put his trust into the invasion and has it authorized, with the notion that no American forces will participate. Jack is still shocked to learn how Kennedy failed in the situation, and say he wishes there was a way to live back that moment in time. Jack is introduced to the periodicals, which lists subjects when they appeared in articles. Jack finds a mention of an article from Life magazine from 1961, but can't understand the text lingo that follows. Before he can get an answer, the library staff announces that they're closing for the night. Samantha tells Jack where to look to get the info so he can find out tomorrow, but Jack asks her to stay as he doesn't have tomorrow to do such a thing. Showing sympathy for him, she asks how she can help, and Jack takes the book and asks her to follow him.
We then see the two hiding in a bathroom stall as she explains to Jack the lingo of the entry. Meanwhile, one of the librarians, Carla, while doing cleanup and being told she'll be late for karate class, notices that a periodical book is missing and begins to search for it. Back in the stall, Jack and Samantha almost gets caught by a janitor, Roy, who turned the lights off in the room, and thinks it's a higherup in there. Carla, frantically looking, notices the bathroom light being on, with Roy telling her it's the assistant principal. As Carla leaves for the night, she passes by a running team as well as said assistant principal on the way out. With the coast clear, Jack and Samantha leave the stall and start looking for the Life magazine in question, with a conveniently hidden flashlight to assist them. They find the magazines, but they only go back to 1971. Jack thinks the library threw the articles away, but Samantha tells him libraries make them smaller, and introduces him to microfilm. They find a reel containing the article mentioned and load the film up, allowing them to read the article. We then get some more mind drama of a Cuban fighter sending a distress call as they're stuck on a coral reef, with an advisor telling Kennedy that it was believed to be seaweed. Soon the ship is hit and sinking, with no response back when called upon. Another call alerts that they're out of ammo and the supply ships are nowhere to be found, and are told to just survive as the supply ships have already left battle. Kennedy wants answers for the bad information causing the catastrophe, with the advisor simply telling him "we were wrong." They get copies of the articles and pictures afterwards. Samantha decides it's time for her to go, and Jack promises her the position of Secretary of Education as she goes. Before she leaves, she sees a picture of Kennedy and decides to continue helping Jack. She sees that the writer of the article worked under Kennedy, leaving Jack to wonder if he wrote anything else. Using the card catalogue again, Jack finds a book about Kennedy written by him, and as the two read, we get more of the mind drama of how Kennedy knew he shouldn't have made such a quick decision based on what the experts told him, and how the decision left him in a state of anguish.
Jack wants to learn more about Fidel Castro, and Samantha suggests they look at a biography of him. Jack learns about how Castro came to power in 1959 and implemented communism to develop a close relation with Nikita Khrushchev, and how Castro agreed to store Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Jack doesn't see what the big deal about that was, given the millions of missiles in Russia already. It turns out Jack doesn't even know where Cuba is in regards to the US. Samantha gets out an Atlas to show Jack that Cuba is much closer than he expected. Jack goes back to the Biggest Mistakes book to read all about the Cuban Missile Crisis and how close things got to a nuclear war in the Summer of 1962. Jack questions why Kennedy waited until October to take action when he already knew the missiles were already there. Reading the chapter more, Jack notices a 3 ending a sentence. Samantha tells him that that's a footnote, which shows the source of the material written. In this case, it's the book "Cuba and Kennedy: The Cause of the Crisis" by P.W. Scher (also not a real book). Jack goes back to the card catalogue to look up the book, only to find there's no card for it under the book title or by the author. Jack finds it impossible that the library doesn't contain the book and starts looking under more categories. Samantha asks what the big deal is if Jack doesn't get the book, which leads Jack to give a deer-in-highlights expression as we go to a fantasy where President Patterson is in a press conference about his opinions on Kennedy's actions. When asked why he thinks Kennedy waited too long to take action, Jack pulls out the notepad with his message from Mrs. Kim, and gives his reasoning: Kennedy didn't want to jeopardize his secret initiative, and that plans were already set in place by getting rid of Castro by blowing up the capital with the help of aliens from space. This...does not actually work in his favor as the media presses harder on him.
And on that day, a little boy named Q started working on his first conspiracy theory.
Jack snaps back to reality as he goes crazy trying to find the book in the library. Elsewhere, we see Carla waking up from her sleep not being able to get the missing periodical out of her head. Back at the library, Samantha tells Jack that if a librarian was around, they'd look for the book on the computer network to see what libraries do have the book. Jack sees a computer in the office and has the idea of Samantha using it to access the network. After we see Carla still pondering about the book, Samantha tells Jack that she doesn't want to risk getting expelled like Howie for breaking into an office and tells Jack that he can just get the info in the morning. Jack tells her he can't wait until the morning, and Samantha asks what's the worst thing that could happen. Jack gets the deer-in-headlights look again as we see President Patterson getting negative press around the world about his Kennedy space alien lie. Back in reality, and after a long pause, Samantha agrees to go with the plan. Elsewhere, Carla is out of bed and is heard driving off.
Jack and Samantha can't get into the office as the door is locked, and Jack wonders if there's anything they can use to get inside. Jack gets an idea and is able to find a pocket locksmith book (surprise surprise, not a real book) that has instructions on how to pick a lock (for emergency reasons of course) and is able to get the door open. Carla meanwhile has arrived at the school in PJs and a 027.8 (school libraries in the Dewey Decimal System) shirt and makes her way into the building. Back to the duo, Samantha does the typing on the computer, but runs into a roadblock as she needs the number to dial in order for the computer to access the database. As Carla makes her way to the library, Jack finds an address book and starts to lookup what the number is. He finds an entry for "L Network", but it turns out to be a dating service. Carla sees the periodical is back where it belongs as Jack and Samantha access the network, which is password-protected. And as things possibly couldn't get any worse, Carla arrives to the office and catches them. After about 5 seconds of screaming from everyone, Carla wants answers. Jack and Samantha tell her they're doing research, as they explain what they were doing and why they were in the office. Carla decides to look it up for them and tells both of them how much trouble they can be in. She's surprised about Samantha, and is more surprised to realize she's talking to Jack. She finds that the book is in the University Library, and questions why Jack needs this book as we see the computer asking if she wants to check the availability of the book. Jack explains that for the last 2 weeks, Richard has been showing him up in Ekenwall's history class, and with a day left before the election, Jack is gonna teach the class to prove himself. Carla reveals that Richard did a 25-page essay last year on Kennedy, which explains Richard's expression from earlier. Hearing of this, Jack yet again gets a deer-in-headlights look as we see President Patterson in an impeachment hearing being led by Senator Ekenwall, who throws it over to Senator Manhouse (R-CA). Manhouse questions Jack's source of his answer, with Jack answering that he doesn't recall after a talk with his advisor, Bobby. Manhouse accuses Patterson of deceiving the American people with baseless rumors, and that great leaders don't do that to people who need to trust and believe him. Take a moment now to reflect on today's politics and maybe take a shot or 5 before reading on.
Back to reality, Carla tells them to check out the books before they head out. Where to? The University Library of course. Since the head librarian happens to be Carla's former professor, she's hoping he can allow them access after hours. Jack calls up his mom as we find out that it's after midnight. We head to the lot as Carla gets in her car, and Jack and Samantha get into a different car, with Bobby wondering where Jack has been all this time. Hope Jack pays Bobby well for making him wait all this time. Carla is able to get the key from the head librarian as he sees that Bobby's car is styled like the President's, making him believe this is for the government. The group arrives to the University (Northwestern according to the credits) as Carla can't get the key to work. Thankfully, Jack and Samantha have the pocket locksmith book. After walking in awe of the building, they head into the library where they get to a computer and look up the book. After finding the book in the system, they look up the availability of the book, only to find that there are no more copies available as hinted by the foreshadowing before. Jack is upset learning about this, but Carla assures him it'll be all right, as Samantha points out there are other books on the Cuban Missile Crisis in the library. They look up "brinkmanship" in the database and find what other books to lookup. As they compile a list of books to lookup, Samantha thinks a guard is present at the door, only for it to be a bust. As Jack looks up a book, he starts to hear growling noises and wonders if Samantha is around. He returns to the table with a sleeping Carla and wakes her up when dropping his pile onto the table.
As Jack and Carla get to reading the books, we get more of the mind drama of Kennedy not wanting to proceed with taking actions based on rumors, and wants to see conclusive evidence that the missiles and the silos are indeed in Cuba. He is given photographs showing definitive evidence of the stockpile of missiles and calls for an emergency meeting as the photographs must be made public to the world. However, he also wants to know whether or not the warheads are also on the island, being told that if they aren't already, they're sure to arrive soon. Jack asks if something can tell him the difference between a missile and a nuclear warhead, and Carla tells him to look in a dictionary. Jack takes the dictionary off of the stand and back to the table, and learns that a warhead is the part of the missile containing the explosive charge. Jack gets that without warheads the missiles would be nothing to worry about. Jack ponders whether the warheads were on the island, since they had evidence of the missiles but not the warheads. If they were, then he claims Kennedy was wrong for not listening to the senator's warning about the Russians building a nuclear base on the island. If they weren't there, then it wouldn't be a big deal since the guns weren't loaded. Carla compliments Jack on his hypothesis on the situation which Jack takes in stride, all while sneaking a peek at what hypothesis means. So now Jack has added a new mission on his docket: finding out whether or not the warheads were on the island.
Carla takes Jack to the computer area where she shows that the CD-ROMs in the computers have entire encyclopedias loaded onto them. As they look up Kennedy, a shadowy figure emerges, which turns out to be Samantha, who may a gone a little overboard looking up books. As Carla helps Samantha with the pile, Jack decides to check out the computer containing the CD-ROM with newspaper articles, only to get blasted by hard rock, which someone has swapped the CD-ROM with. Thankfully the right disc is in the music case.
Jack looks up articles on the Cuban Missile Crisis while Samantha asks Carla why doesn't their school have this kind of tech. Carla tells her that she's working on it, which I guess is the answer you give when you don't wanna reply it's because of the budget. Jack is able to find out that an article from 1989 wrote about a 2-day seminar in Moscow discussing the Crisis. They search for the article in the library, but the microfiche (which is like microfilm but on cards rather than reels) is unavailable, with Jack thinking this is the work of political sabotage as this is another important piece of work that just happens to be gone. Carla suggests looking at the other articles, which Jack agrees to, viewing other microfiche cards. With a clock showing that it's nearly a quarter to 4, Jack and Carla load up the computer's database in order to find other articles on the warheads. Samantha meanwhile comes in with a cart full of books with marked pages for Jack to check out. Carla is able to narrow down 5000+ articles about warheads to just 11 using more terms. Samantha points out that one article doesn't have any of the terms Carla used, and Carla explains that the search is reading the entire article, not just the title. They choose the article and print it out for Jack to check out. We get some more mind drama of Kennedy and his advisors discussing the options on the table. Do they scale an invasion? Do they create a blockade? Air strike? Kennedy rules out an invasion and asks for more research to be done. Another conversation talks about whether the air strike should be done, as bombing the island and killing civilians in an attempt to blow up the bases could lead to Khrushchev retaliating, which Kennedy wishes to avoid. Kennedy ultimately decides on the blockade, saying that they need Khrushchev to pull the missiles out before they make the decision to pull them out for him, at the risk of Khrushchev making the missiles operational.
Pictured: Eves watching The Mind's Treasure Chest
After Jack learns that the blockade was the decision of the US, Samantha and Carla, waking up from a short rest, scold Jack on not knowing how the crisis ends, with Carla adding that he needs to know how the whole thing ended before he starts finding out about the warheads. Jack says he has more work to do as Samantha tells him that she's hungry, tired, and that Jack can make do with what he has. Jack gets another deer-in-headlights look and fantasizes President Patterson getting headshots taken that Samantha snaps him out of quickly. Jack apologizes and talks about how he thought he knew everything before, and now feels that he doesn't know anything.
We cut to Samantha getting items for breakfast from vending machines, with one giving change as she walks away from them. We get more mind drama of Kennedy's address to the nation from October of 1962, reports of operational missiles found on the island, reports of Russian submarines in the area which Kennedy wants sunk if they interfere with the blockade, and a wire coming in from Khrushchev saying that if the US agrees not to invade Cuba, he will have the missiles removed from the island. Kennedy wants a translated copy of the wire and a reply drafted. Kennedy chooses not to retaliate the shooting down of a U2 plane over the island as the drafted letter is complete, saying that if the bases are dismantled with UN inspection, the US will end the blockade and agree not to invade Cuba, with Kennedy ordering that Bobby (Robert Kennedy in this case) take the message to the Russian embassy. A wire comes in from Radio Moskow announcing Khrushchev is dismantling the bases and is pulling all Soviets out of the island. Kennedy's advisors celebrate and applaud the President for his handling of the crisis, but Kennedy wants to make it clear: There will be no boasting, gloating, or claim of victory from this, and that they've already had the Russians avoid total humiliation and wants no more humiliation done to them. He gives his appreciation to his advisors for giving all the information, evidence, and possible courses of action to make the operation a success, and thanks them all.
Samantha has Jack join her and Carla for the makeshift breakfast, and Jack talks about how, regardless of whether or not the warheads were on the island, Kennedy took the right choice of waiting before taking action. He explains that Kennedy waited to get the information and understand the truth of the situation, bringing it back to the Bay of Pigs when Kennedy relied on another's judgement and choices, which ended up being the wrong decision. With the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy learned from his mistakes, going after the answers himself and learned about the situation, discussing all the possibilities of what can be done, and making the final decision himself based on what he knew, which happened to be the right one. Jack says he always thought Kennedy was great but never questioned why, and now he understands it was because that Kennedy learned from his mistakes. Carla tells him that if that's what Jack believes, then that's what Jack needs to say to the class. Jack feels he hasn't done enough yet, saying he knows about the basics of the events, but not the details. Samantha tells him the details won't make a difference in whether he wins or loses the election, but Jack points out that he's either going into the class knowing what he's talking about, or he's gonna go in the same way he always was.
As Sam and Carla get some sleep, Jack does more research, finding videos and transcripts of Kennedy's speeches on the situation. Specifically this one. Jack wakes up Carla and says he's ready to go, even though he doesn't have all the information, saying that it's funny that the one piece of info he wanted he never found. Carla mentions that the political-science department of the University did a study on the matter a couple of years ago, and that the answer might be in the vertical file. Jack goes into the room marked as such and sees a giant black vertical file in a very bright room. Jack climbs the ladder nearby and checks a file on US Government, finding inside of it an article from the January 29, 1989 edition of the LA Times revealing that Soviet warheads were indeed in Cuba (Actual article btw, but it's blocked by a paywall online.)
Why yes, they did play Also sprach Zarathustra. How'd you know?
The article explains that missiles were aimed at major US cities such as Washington DC and New York City, and that Castro sent a message to Khrushchev urging him to fire the missiles. This is return made Khrushchev feel the confrontation had gone too far, leading to his agreement with Kennedy to withdraw the missiles. Jack shows the article to Carla, but before they can celebrate the success of the vertical file, Carla sees that it's almost 6:30am and that they all need to go. Jack wants help getting the books out, but since he's not a student of the University, it's not possible. Carla tells Jack he should've been taking notes rather than marking pages, with Jack saying there was no time to do so, and without the books, the night spent would've been for nothing. Samantha tells him he can have all the pages photocopied, but Carla shoots the idea down as she has to return the key in 10 minutes and report to work in 40, and she can't leave Jack by himself in the library. After a brief pause however, she tells him that she'll leave him there, but warns him that he needs to be done and out of the building by 7:30 or else they'll both be in trouble. She tells him to just put the books in the returned book bin and remove the pieces of paper marking the pages. Samantha asks if Jack has enough change to photocopy everything, with Jack showing off his briefcase full of candy bar profits to show that he'll be fine. As they both leave, Samantha wishes Jack luck and tells him that she'll see him in class.
Jack gets right to work photocopying and returning the books, page by page, book by book, one quarter at a time. Jack sees that it's 7:12 as he only has one thing left to copy: the LA Times article. As the lights in the library turn on, Jack sees that he's all out of quarters and starts frantically looking for one, finding only a wornout $5 bill that the machine refuses to accept. Jack takes his stuff and makes a run for the vending machines as the librarian walks into the library, noticing that there's a whole slew of books on the floor. Jack is able to find the change left behind from Samantha and hurries his way back to the machine. The librarian takes the giant stack of books and rather than putting them on a cart, decides to carry the pile himself. Jack sees the librarian by the machine and in an attempt not to get caught by him, shows off his throwing accuracy again by throwing the quarter directly into the coin slot. The startling of the coin going into the slot leads to a book from the pile dropping onto the copy button. The librarian puts the books and the article in the machine onto a cart and starts to walk away. But before he does, he also takes the copy of the article with him to the anguish of Jack. Luckily, he drops it off into a nearby trash bin, which Jack gets it out of.
It's nearly 2:00 now as kids start filing in to Mr.Ekenwall's class. Samantha walks in and notices Jack is nowhere to be found. Richard walks in with pride with other students as Ekenwall walks in and locks the door behind him. Ekenwall starts the lesson as Richard sees Jack not in his seat, showing delight in the process. Ekenwall's lesson is interrupted as the class hears the lock getting picked open. The door opens and Jack walks in, briefcase in hand. After a pause, he makes his way to his seat where he gives Samantha a wink. Jack takes his notebook out of his briefcase and starts to scribble in the notebook, looking to get Ekenwall's attention. Shockingly, Ekenwall instead continues with the lesson, with Jack now getting out a set of crayons out to draw with. Ekenwall continues not taking the bait and Jack upgrades to a larger sketchpad. While showing some disturbance, Ekenwall continues on with the lesson. That is of course until he sees that Jack is now doing a full-blown painting, artist beret and all. To the delight of Samantha, this finally gets Ekenwall to walk over to Jack and asks if he perhaps would like to teach the class. Jack says he'd like to try, with Ekenwall giving him the floor. Jack throws the beret onto a rack and makes his way to the front of the room.
As Jack is ready to begin, we now get to what's always the cheesiest part of any edutainment piece: the musical piece, with the song bringing up the words "The Mind's Treasure Chest" in case you were wondering when that was ever gonna come into play. During the song, we see past moments of the film, as well as cuts of Jack teaching the class. Also, those 3 girls mentioned before start singing the chorus and have turned into lounge singers. No, I'm not making this up. Look at the gif below.
"Library! Library!"
At one point, Jack starts to talk about the information he obtained from the LA Times article. As he's writing on the board, Richard accuses Jack of lying, which gets the music to stop. Jack is ready to shove the article in Richard's face until he remembers Kennedy's speech of not boasting or gloating. Jack turns around and gives Bobby the article, having it projected onto the board saying most did not know about this revelation as it happened 26 years after the fact. This gets a look of approval by Ekenwall as Richard admits he wasn't aware of this. The music plays again as we get more clips of previous moments, as well as clips of kids dancing wearing the 027.8 shirt Carla was wearing in the latter half of the film. As the lesson ends, the class gives a standing ovation as reporters surround Jack. Jack simply makes his way to Samantha and they both smile together as the song ends. We then cut to Jack, now Student Council President, adjourning a meeting. When everyone leaves, Jack pulls out a book of what appears to be about Khrushchev from his briefcase and starts to read it. Carla shows up and tells Jack that the book is overdue. Jack simply smiles to the camera as the film comes to an end.
So that was The Mind's Treasure Chest, which not only got to teach how to do research at libraries, but also served as a history lesson on JFK and the crises involving Cuba as well. The movie gets a little cheesy with the entertainment portions, but it wasn't too overboard to cause you to groan and roll your eyes while the film doesn't get too preachy for the education portions and avoids being an Author Tract on the subject at hand (unless you think libraries suck and/or JFK was awful as President I guess.) Personally, I thought the movie was pretty good as far as edutainment goes, and I wouldn't be the only one thinking so as the film did win a few film festival awards back then.
This wouldn't be the last time we'd see Jack Patterson. A few years later, Harry Gottlieb, the founder of Learn Television and writer/director of The Mind's Treasure Chest, decided to add interactive media into the fold, and so he would bring Jack Patterson back in That's A Fact, Jack, an educational game that would quiz students on certain books done in the style of a quiz show. While the project was being done, Harry discussed the project with a friend of his that worked at Berkerly Interactive, who would ask Harry if he can do the same kind of game, but for a more mature audience. Harry would discuss and brainstorm the idea with his brother and roommate Tom, and decided to best way to do such a thing was to present questions that were a mix of high culture, like Shakesphere, and pop culture, like The Brady Bunch. Harry and Tom would be in the game, but they'd go by the names of Nate Shapiro and Cookie Masterson. And if none of this is ringing any bells for you, well...
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK!
That's right. Before they were spitting out yearly party packs as Jackbox Games, and before they were feeding us Gibberish Questions and asking us to choose between Dis or Dat, the company once known as Jellyvision started as an edutainment company. Some of the actors in The Mind's Treasure Chest would also provide voices for the YDKJ line of games, most notably Patrick Heupal, Jack Patterson himself, voicing the character Pat in Volume 2 as well as the standby-host of 5th Dementia, Gerald. How's that for a twist ending?
And that'll wrap things up here. Did you happen to watch this when you were in school? Know of any other good ways to support your local libraries? Share your thoughts below. Whether you watched the film or read the text, thanks for showing some interest here. And hey, if you wanna know more about the Cuban Missile Crisis, I'd recommend checking out Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is an account of the whole ideal from Robert Kennedy. And where should you check it out if you have the chance? Well, I think you should the answer by now.
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