Studying war can be hell
There’s a military-history professor down Texas way by the name of Joyce Goldberg who has given up teaching military history after nearly 30 years. Increasingly, she writes in the Chronicle of Higher Education, her classes have been filled with recent military veterans more interested in binding their own mental war wounds than studying pre-9/11 U.S. military history. It’s a strange grace note to the nation’s wars and the unexpectedly ricocheting hurt they can inflict:
…many students in the class were not as interested in exploring the seminal issues of U.S. military history as they were in finding solace, seeking closure, or securing an understanding of their own—or, in many cases, their loved ones’—recent military experiences…What these students needed was personal catharsis, but I am not a trained psychologist. What these students craved was the opportunity to express their anger or pain, but my class was not the place to do it.
It’s an important article. Do yourself and your nation a favor and read the full thing here. (h/t Best Defense)