Bat timeline and cultural context

I have this thing about the timeline. I snark about it making no sense and stretching for untold amount of years as much as anyone else, but the truth is, I love that. I love that Dick was a teen in the seventies, that Jason lived on the streets during the middle 80s, that early Tim and Oracle didn't have a facebook. Helena has been a teacher since the late 80s. Jason and Steph were dead/"dead" for several years, inhabitants of Gotham didn't see the release of the Sixth Sense because they were in No Man's Land at the time. The chibi Titans wouldn't have pretended to have laser sabers, Jason didn't watch Scream nor theLion king before he died, none of them played Pokemon as children, and Dinah most definitely didn't have a poster of Kurt Cobain as a teen.

But it brings to mind several issues. I'm not an American, and I have no idea what classes existed during these time periods. Occasionally, it bothers me, because I like little details in fic. I can make semi-educated guesses about music and movies, less so about how the school system worked. I'm stuck on the school thing here, but are there other obvious things I've missed, things I can't find out on Wikipedia?

So. What books would each of them have studied? What kind of classes existed? Were there school shrinks? How were teachers regarded during these time periods, and what tools were common/uncommon?

[DC] Five books Barbara Gordon put on hold at the library.

Title: Five books Barbara Gordon put on hold at the library
Character: Barbara
Rating: G
Notes: for a comment fic prompt over on dreamwidth.

1. Cheaper By The Dozen, after Bruce mentioned that he never finished it as a child, putting it away in favour of his quest of training. Now it's waiting for the time he's grown-up enough that he may start revisiting his childhood, as an old and faraway country.

2. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; it was published a few months after Stephanie's death, and she'd always been a fan of the series. It was sentimental of Barbara to put it on hold for her. When Stephanie came back, Barbara gave her a copy of Deathly Hallows.

3. Cinderella. When Dick told Cass the story, doing all the voices, making the characters come alive with his body, Cass loved it. If she's able to read it by herself one day, to find the welcoming familiarity of the story in a book, wouldn't it be a wonderful gift?

4. A self-help book – they rotate. Sometimes Barbara is angry enough at Bruce or Dick that confronting them is not an option. Then she puts whatever pop psychology book would explain their issues to them on the list, and pictures herself sending it to them. She never does; it would hurt Dick, but he still wouldn't get it, and Bruce wouldn't change his ways.

5. The Stranger. It was on Tim's reading list before he decided school education was for people who weren't adopted by Bruce Wayne, and it's going to stay on that list until he gets back to whatever form of higher education fits him best, or he comes up with an alternative that doesn't rely on Bruce Wayne's money.