To Correct or To Not Correct?

I was surprised when I heard Jasmine chime into the conversation from the back of the room. She is a thoughtful and engaged student, but she rarely spoke up during whole-group discussions. After class one day, she confided in me that she was nervous to say something “wrong” and embarrass herself in front of  her classmates. I understood and sympathized with her concerns. But at this moment, she made an inaccurate comment about the Haitian Revolution and  I was unsure how to respond. “This document shows how miserable their lives were because they only got to have this church celebration once a year,” Jasmine said, pointing to a document about enslaved people singing and dancing at churches on their days off. She was getting at the point that the joy of song and dance was a direct response to the cruelty of slavery, and it excited me to hear her say this. However, her “once a year” comment was not accurate, and I wanted to correct it before other students based their opinions on an inaccuracy. If I corrected her, though, it might make her feel like her entire interpretation of the document was wrong. Worse yet, she might feel like she was losing face in front of her classmates, which she already told me was a fear of hers. I really didn’t want this minor correction to discourage her from speaking in any future discussions. Right in the moment, I had to figure out how to clarify the inaccurate part of her statement while praising the insight of her historical interpretation.