Interesting. In what area of the country did this happen? I attended central Illinois schools, graduating high school in 1976. I don't recall ever being forced to use a particular reference, or having to subscribe to a particular periodical. Our conservative economics instructor once offered his class extra credit for going to watch the play 1776 when it came to down, but that was about it. He used to play clips from Paul Harvey -- I wished I had paid more attention to him.