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Schools

Vets help students learn about war and more

The Bayside High School history class turned their interviews into a book about the Vietnam War.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published May 8, 2005

Surgery requires a sharp instrument. In the case of one Bayside High School class, the scalpel is the Vietnam War.

Last week, students completed History of the Vietnam War, a unique course in Pinellas County's first long-term alternative school. That war, it seems, still has such an edge that it allowed 20 "at-risk" students to cut through their own misfortunes and find victory.

"It works best with these kinds of kids," said Tom Murray, 58, who taught the class.

Murray takes an unusual tack with the students, many of whom have histories of academic or disciplinary problems. He grants them freedom to learn on their own, while insisting on high standards of performance.

He trusts them, and it works.

"They build up all kinds of confidence in themselves," he said.

Murray, a Vietnam veteran himself, uses the war because he says it opens the eyes of youngsters. He doesn't use textbooks, preferring to have students interact personally with veterans and see how the war shaped their lives and the nation. In the process, the vets shed some of their emotional weight and pass their earned wisdom to another generation.

Murray also benefits.

"Each year I learn much more than my students in this class," he wrote in the preface to Through the Eyes of a Soldier, an oral history that constitutes the students' final exam. The students wrote the book and presented copies of it last week to some of the veterans they had interviewed.

"My students are my teacher," Murray said.

The class operates on symbiosis. The students and the vets at the VA Medical Center at Bay Pines talk and help each other. The end result is something Murray calls "intergenerational cross-mentoring."

"I really find it amazing that, after all these people have gone through, they are still willing to share that experience with young people," said Robert Grosch, Murray's only senior. The class also teaches students how to research, question and learn.

"I think I have really learned something that will stay with me forever," said Liz Miholics, a junior. "It seems to pop up for everything I discuss. It makes me think what else I'm missing out on learning out there."

Murray has been teaching the class for four years, but it has evolved into a moderated, non-didactic style. As he's changed the format and seen the effects, Murray has used the results as part of his thesis for a doctorate in education from the University of South Florida.

Murray's data show that kids with poor academic performance before taking his class turn themselves around during and after it, in many cases with dramatic improvements on standardized tests and grade point averages. Murray talks of one student who, brimming with pride at her learning and the book she helped produce, asked for an extra copy to send to a former teacher who had said she would never amount to anything.

"They thought of themselves as bad kids because that's what everyone told them they were," Murray said. "It's just a matter of giving kids a chance in such a way that they can feel the success inside themselves."

USF is also supporting the class' Web site, http://fcit.usf.edu/vietnam which is filling up with video clips the students filmed and edited.

"This is my favorite class ever," said Clifton Taylor, 17, echoing what most of his classmates say. "I never had a class like this before. Not only do you get to learn the facts, you can feel the veteran's experience as you talk to them. Some of their stories made me cry."

The students autographed the books they gave to their sources and ended each story with "Thanks" and "Welcome Home." Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf's story of two tours is in the book, as is that of Jan Scruggs, the founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. Even Murray's story - shot down in Laos when Americans weren't supposed to be there - appears in the book, though he shuns the attention.

This summer, Murray will present the book and his research at the Institute for Education Research in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He's also trying to raise $5,000 to build a school in Vietnam.

"When students are engaged, discipline issues disappear," Murray wrote. "The next time you hear someone complain about kids, tell them about these kids."

[Last modified May 8, 2005, 00:45:19]