Veterans in College Writing Classes

Understanding and Embracing the Mutual Benefit

SEAN MORROW AND ALEXIS HART

DOI: 10.7330/9780874219425.c001

There is a gulf between those of us in the services and those of us who have remained civilians. We have only heard about each other second hand, and in the press. This is not good enough. We must get together. We must understand each other. Otherwise, the gulf will grow wider, bitterness and distrust will increase, and this period of demobilization will be all the more difficult.

— CPT Robert Maugham, HMS (Bolte 1945, 145)

This "gulf" between civilians and their military counterparts to which Captain Maugham drew attention at the end of the Second World War is perhaps even more evident today in an era during which only 1 percent of the US population serves in the active military and only 7 percent are military veterans (Elliott, Gonzalez, and Larsen 2011, 282). Yet, as more veterans take advantage of the post-9/11 GI Bill and matriculate on college campuses in numbers not seen since the 1940s, we college writing instructors are increasingly likely to encounter opportunities to engage with student-veterans and to facilitate their transition into the academy, opportunities that may seem both intimidating and appealing.

On the one hand, as veterans enter our writing classrooms with experiences neither more traditional students nor we are likely to have encountered, we college writing professionals may find ourselves wondering if we need to reevaluate our approaches to writing instruction. On the other hand, we may find ourselves sharing an appreciation for the mutual benefit to be had when teaching student-veterans. As community college writing professor and Marine Corps veteran Galen Leonhardy remarks, "Composition instructors must first recognize that we have much to learn from veterans, just as we have much more to do for them." He goes on to suggest that since veterans are likely to "make up a fair number of potential students... It is important to understand them" (Leonhardy 2009, 340). Drawing upon Morrow's experiences during the recent wars as an active-duty military officer, a graduate-student veteran, and a composition instructor of both veterans and nonveterans, and on Hart's experiences as an active-duty military officer serving during the relative peace between the First Gulf War and the more recent combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as a professor of writing at a public military college, this essay brings together the insights of a relatively new initiate to academe and a more seasoned academic, of a post-9/11 and a pre-9/11 veteran, to offer an insider perspective meant to provide college writing faculty with some understanding of military culture and to offer some suggestions about personal and pedagogical approaches that may serve to assist this new generation of student-veterans in college writing classes.

First, the essay examines the range of experiences of contemporary military personnel, discusses how these varied experiences result in similarities as well as profound differences among veterans, and considers how recognizing and acknowledging these varied experiences might help writing teachers productively interact with student-veterans and more effectively incorporate these students into the broader classroom structure. Next, Morrow relates some of his personal experiences as a veteran in graduate school and then as an instructor of both veterans and future soldiers in the freshman writing program at West Point. The nature of some of his experiences may have a slightly different resonance since Morrow's postcombat experience as a student was in a graduate classroom and his college teaching experience has been limited to students who have made the commitment to serve in the military; nevertheless, the insights provided by these narratives are transferrable. Finally, the essay discusses some approaches writing instructors can cultivate in the classroom to find points of connection that can serve to bridge the civilian/military gulf mentioned above and increase the likelihood that the experiences writing instructors share with student-veterans will result in enhanced learning and increased understanding for all.

Understanding the Scope of Veteran Experiences

As is the case with other minority student populations, the scope of veteran experiences is substantial. What makes veterans different from other minority-student populations is that even though their experiences vary widely, the context of those experiences retains a high degree of similarity. This shared context affords teachers of writing the opportunity to gain insight and understanding about their student-veterans by asking a few general questions likely to resonate with most (but, admittedly, not all) student-veterans.

Why did you join the service?

Was your military-service experience what you expected?

What did you learn from your time in the service?

Why did you choose to come to this college/university?

What do you want to get out of and/or contribute to this class?

Of course, these questions are not all inclusive, nor do they represent a checklist to be administered to each veteran who walks through a writing teacher's classroom or office door. They do, however, enable us as instructors to gain some insight into the type and scope of experiences student-veterans may have and can provide an early indicator of veterans' willingness or desire to be open about their status as veterans within the context of the classroom and the campus. As Morrow observes,

These are the types of questions that give veterans a chance to decide...