Experience as Evidence

A student argued that people opposed the Vietnam War because of the Mai Lai massacre, wherein between 300 and 500 unarmed civilians were killed by U.S. Army soldiers. Another student added to this comment by talking about her family's experience in Cambodia during the Vietnam war. This comment was not aligned with my rubric, which describes how students are supposed to cite evidence from the text and explain it. However, this student sharing her family's experiences significantly added to the complexity and depth of discussion. Students were captivated and listening carefully. The room was completely silent. I was so proud that she felt comfortable enough to share this deeply personal material. Another moment like this arose later in the discussion, when a student shared that her grandfather was a Vietnam War veteran and did not experience any “help” or social programs when he returned from Vietnam. This connected to one of our documents, Martin Luther King Jr’s description of the forgotten “poverty program” in his Beyond Vietnam speech. However, she did not make this connection in her comment. I struggled with trying to figure out how to encourage students to continue bringing in their relevant personal and family experiences and those of their families into class discussions while keeping students grounded in the text.