On June 11th, NPR aired
a story on the more than half a million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan
conflicts who are attending college. Host Melissa Block reported that “some
veterans say the transition is like landing on another planet” and that
“college staffs are having trouble adapting, too.”
The
story featured Sierra Community College in Northern California and the laudable
efforts of one counselor, a former Marine herself, to establish support
services for the college’s 800 veterans. Click here for the NPR story.
Several
years ago, I wrote about a program for returning Vietnam vets that I taught in
as a young man. Looking back on it, I think the program offered a remarkable
model that should be replicated today – though as the NPR story made clear, the
awful budgetary conditions in most colleges make such replication unlikely.
Still, if you’ll indulge me, I would like to reprint this post, originally from
November, 2009. It seems especially timely today.
* * *
What
the classroom full of veterans wanted most was, as one of them put it, “to help
our families understand what we went through.” The course was in communication, and it was part of an
educational program for veterans of the Vietnam war. The teacher – my colleague in the federally funded program –
had asked them what they most wanted to learn, and that was their primary
answer: to explain to those closest to them the hell they endured.
Our
newest generation of veterans are returning to a warmer welcome than those who
served in Vietnam, but the kind of war they fought is similar, and their needs
are as great. By one count, over
30,000 are injured, some severely.
(And this number doesn’t include, or significantly undercounts,
traumatic brain injuries.) Others are or will be torn apart by psychological
trauma. And many others will
experience terrible distress as they try to find their way with family and
community, the economy and education.
What kind of
support is our society providing for them? As a young man, I taught English in that program for Vietnam
vets, so I got a sense of life after service is over, after physical wounds are
healed, after the ceremonies – if there were any – and handshakes have receded
into memory. Then soldiers have
their lives to pick up or to create anew.
Advocates
for veterans have brought to public attention the inadequate funding and
delivery of health care for newer generations of veterans; less public until
the deliberations preceding the new GI Bill were the limited resources for
education and the many problems young veterans face as they try to reenter
school. The rising cost of living
combined with rising costs of tuition, textbooks, and supplies dash many hopes,
but even those who can make it financially typically face significant academic
and social problems.
The
program that contained the communication class could serve as a model for how
to help the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Fortunately, a
number of colleges are responding to this new generation of veterans with a
range of support services: financial aid assistance, counseling, orientation
programs, and social clubs. These are valuable resources. But my sense is that
returning soldiers would be better served through a program that includes significant
course work as well as services. One such effort is the laudable SERV
(Supportive Education for the Returning Veteran) program at Cleveland State.
But there are few others. The programs I’d like to see could run through some
part of the first year (as SERV does) or could function as a preparatory or
bridge program that precedes but is linked to further matriculation.
The
key idea is to treat a complex educational issue in a comprehensive and
integrated way. To respond adequately to educational needs, the program has to
address psychological, social, and economic needs as well. And, hand in glove,
some social and psychological problems – inability to concentrate, feelings of
intellectual inadequacy – don’t fully manifest themselves unless one is in a
classroom, immersed in English or math or poly sci.
The
Veterans Special Education Program was a twelve-week crash course in college
preparation. The veterans called
it academic boot camp. The
curriculum included representative freshman year courses in English,
psychology, communications, and mathematics, so students got a sense of what
lay before them – a reality check – and were able to begin college with some
credits, a leg up. The courses
also addressed fundamental cognitive and social skills: critical writing and
reading, mathematics, human relations, and communication.
The
courses were supported with tutoring.
A number of the veterans had poor academic backgrounds, so some needed a
good deal of assistance with their writing, with reading academic material, or
with all the strategies for doing well in school: managing time, note taking,
studying for exams. But the
tutoring also made the academic work more humane, no small thing, for many of
the students carried with them a history of insecurity and anger about matters
academic.
They
were being asked to write essays analyzing poetry or comparing sociological or
psychological theories and to read more carefully and critically than they had
before. The challenge stirred
strong feeling. Some of the
students shut down and withdrew and others erupted. One marine scout I was working with got so frustrated that,
in a blur of rage and laughter, he bit off the corner of his paper before
handing it to me.
It
wasn’t enough for us to do our work within the confines of the classroom. The staff would follow up when a
student missed a few days, making phone calls, driving over to an apartment or
hotel room, finding someone in awful shape. We had a rich network of referrals for psychological
counseling – the nearby V.A. hospitals but also local agencies and civic
organizations. And for those who needed it, we had referrals for financial
counseling as well. Finally, the program included advising to assist the
students in selecting and applying to appropriate colleges and
universities. With help from our
counselor, the fellow who sank his teeth into that essay got into UCLA,
majoring in Sociology and East Asian Studies.
All
this created a sense of community, something the veterans often noted. For all their social and political
differences, they shared the war, and now they were preparing for reentry into
the world they left behind. The
staff put on social events, but the real community, I believe, was formed
through a course of study that was intensive, generous with assistance, and
geared toward the next phase of the veterans’ lives.
We
have been awash with “support our troops” rhetoric and told to always “thank
veterans for their service.” Politicians use such language as a patriotic trump
card. One grand irony in all this
is the shameful level of health and psychological care some veterans have been
getting and the resistance a number of conservatives and the Pentagon itself
displayed a few years ago during legislative deliberations for a new G.I. Bill.
Rather than
patriotic talk, I’d like to hear about programs that are comprehensive and
address the multiple needs our troops have when they return home. Programs that provide knowledge and
build skill. Programs that are
thick with human contact. Programs
that meet veterans where they are and provide structure and guidance that
assist them toward a clear goal.
Programs that build a community while leading these young men and women
back to their own communities.
Educational programs
for special populations tend toward single-shot solutions: a few basic skills
courses, or tutoring, or counseling.
But the best programs work on multiple levels, integrate a number of
interventions. Such programs
emerge from an understanding of the multiple barriers faced by their
participants, but also from an affirmation of the potential of those
participants. The richness of the
program matches the perception of the capacity of the people who populate it.
This
is how really to support our troops. And it is how we should think about an
education that, of necessity, has to go beyond the classroom.
You can share this blog post on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Reader through the "Share" function located at the top left- hand corner of the blog.
You can share this blog post on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Reader through the "Share" function located at the top left- hand corner of the blog.
Hi, Mike. Hope things are well. I read this post on your experience preparing Vietnam Vets for college with interest. How to honor and support vets with a myriad of problems, as well as potential, has bugged me. I'm going to share a link including my recent interview with an Iraq War vet:
ReplyDeletehttp://alcstudies.org/2012/05/24/a-memorial-day-remembrance-occupy-pittsburgh-2011-2012/
Your restrospective offers practical wisdom on the issues and challenges vets from the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan face today. Given the inflated price and problemmatic ROI of four-year college and the current economy, I think programs (via the VA and gov) should offer multiple tracks for vets in the trades and two year programs as well. What about corporations and businesses offering subsidized apprenticeship programs? Not everyone is cut out for the academic life. Academics itself has become more vocational and less about encouraging (or even tolerating) the life of the mind. Harking back to your 'Mind at Work', the intelligence and experience of vets with a variety of aptitudes and interests should be harness for the good of the country and themselves. Best. Chuck Lanigan
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI have long been an avid follower of your writing, and had the great pleasure of meeting you at the 2012 CCCC. I regret that I am just getting a chance to read this post. Your work with veterans is an excellent example to all.
I would like to make you aware of a growing group that meets at CCCC and (with luck) will present our second full-day workshop at the 2013 CCCC in Las Vegas; we will also have our third SIG meeting at the conference. The group is Allies of Veterans in Academia, and as a group, we are working to design better writing programs for veterans.
I would love to know more about the program you discuss in this blog and I know the group would as well. It would be an amazing accomplishment if we could get more programs like this implemented in our curriculums.
Job well done guys, quality information.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.write-essay.org/
I found this post to salient and intriguing. Personally, I have been thinking about volunteering with veterans this summer since I finally have time to do some community volunteer work. It has been a big part of my life, the desire to better my community, and I found that the topic of returning veterans to be particularly ignored or mismanaged. I remember the day I took off my uniform and rejoined civilian life. I was happy to be done with my army service. But then, you wake up one morning and your job, your habits, your friends… they are all gone. You have to get up and re-start your life, and this is all without the trauma of battle and anguish! So imagine my excitement as I read that a program dedicated to actually supporting troops. I immediately knew that this is something I have to be a part of.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this type of program needs to address a complex of problems, as well as college preparation. But perhaps, more importantly as you suggested, it is important to build a sense of community and achievement. Basic academic skills take time to acquire, college prep takes patience and guidance (just like in the case of re-remediation), and should help students develop confidence in their abilities. The community and help such programs offer are invaluable specifically because they ease the way from military to civilian, from one community to the next.
Token “support” has no place in our society, but real and measurable actions do. It is my hope to find such a program (or start one) and join it, as soon as I can, so that I can show my real actionable support for veterans.
It looks simple and done for a veteran to enroll in school. It is not the case for most of the American Veterans, my boyfriend served the military sector for almost 8 years. He has tried uncountable times to speak to representatives in the VA benefit section, with no luck at all. He has left multiple messages via email and phone, we would like to think is the overwork they have at their hands, or they are incompetent to reply with a simple email or phone call to state that his case is being reviewed. I can see how much he wants to go back to his normal life, but he has not received the support he should have received for protecting this nation and its people. As September 2014, there about 2.7 million American Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, out of the half seek treatment or education. They feel neglected and forgotten. I see now their frustration. Sadly, it is correct
ReplyDeleteMy greatest gratitude to all of them!
The life lasting wounds of physical and emotional distress, experiences they want to forget. Our heroes deserve more benefits and better treatment, War has come with a huge human life cost. We need to improve the legal system for our veterans, in order for them to fit in in a strange society now.
Veronica C.
For many veterans, their times in Iraq and Afghanistan were experiences they never want to remember, unfortunately, they live with that memory everyday. Enrolling in school has been a scrutinizing protocol. My personal experience to watch my boyfriend calling everyday for the past three months, leaving messages to his VA rehab coordinator. No phone call or email has been replied to him. It is sad to see him to try to fit in in this society. Trying to get an education has not been easy for him, he was told few months ago "not to worry, he was accepted in the program". Turn out, that was not the case. He was put out of the program without any noticed, he has been to the VA office in Los Angeles, he is told there is nobody at the L.A. office and needs to contact Washington D.C. To see his eagerness to improve his education and give back to the community have been frustrating. We hope the legal system can change and get better benefits with shorter waited periods. We need to make it a smooth process for those who are willing to get back to their normal civilian life. War has come with a huge human life cost, veterans deserve better education, better treatment, better health. Overall they need to be honor for the peace and freedom we have in this country.
ReplyDeleteVC