Returning vets need educational support

By Mike Rose

What the classroom full of veterans wanted most from their teacher was help in explaining to their families what they had gone through in the war. They were taking a course in communication that was part of a federally funded education program for Vietnam veterans in the early 1970s, and their teacher was a colleague of mine.

Our newest generation of veterans will return to a warmer welcome than those who served in Vietnam, but their needs will be as great. More than 21,000 are currently injured, some severely. Others are torn apart by psychological trauma. And yet others will experience terrible distress as they try to find their way with family and community, the economy and education. What kind of support will our society provide?

Advocates for veterans bring to public attention the inadequate health care for our military men and women. Less public are the inadequacies in education funding and in addressing the many problems young veterans face as they try to reenter school. The rising cost of living and education dashes many hopes, but even those who can strain to make it financially typically face significant academic and social problems that need to be addressed.

The Vietnam-era “Veterans Special Educational Program” that I was part of could serve as an effective model for addressing those issues. It focused on education, but its philosophy and structure could be adapted to such areas as occupational training, marriage and family readjustment, or drug and alcohol treatment.

I taught English in the program, which was housed in UCLA’s Extension facility. A 12-week crash course in college preparation, the curriculum included representative freshman courses in English, psychology, communications and mathematics. This allowed veterans to begin college with a leg up.

The courses also addressed fundamental cognitive and social skills, including human relations and critical writing and reading. Tutoring supported the coursework, not least because many veterans had poor academic backgrounds. But the tutoring also made the academic work more humane — many of the students had a history of insecurity, frustration and anger about matters academic.

Academic and career advisers helped the vets select and apply to appropriate colleges and universities. Teachers, counselors and tutors followed up with students who missed a few days, making phone calls and checking in on them at their apartments.

All this created a vital sense of community. For all their social and political differences, these ex-soldiers were preparing together to reenter the world they had left behind at home. They formed useful connections through a course of study that was intensive, thick with assistance and geared toward the next phase of their lives.

As Washington paves the way for withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, the nation needs to think about fully funded programs that not only provide veterans knowledge and skills, but guide and assist them toward a clear goal. That’s the way to really support our troops.

Rose is a professor at the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. A longer version of this article recently appeared in the Sacramento Bee.