East students gain insight from panel on Vietnam War

East High School students learned how primary sources can help them better understand both literature and history during a special panel about the Vietnam War.
 
Students in American Literature classes heard firsthand accounts about the 1960s and 1970s from three people who lived through those decades. Panelists Carrie Leathers, Charlie Shapiro and Chuck Morgan gave presentations and answered questions from students during the 40-minute event.
 
Laiah and Mimi were among the Spartans who attended the session in the school library. Juniors and seniors in Benjamin Leathers-Arnold’s American Literature classroom are reading “Fallen Angels” this semester, which has a storyline based around the Vietnam War. Both said attending the panel gave them greater insight about the main characters of the novel.

 
“I feel like I have more of a connection to the book,” Laiah said. “It helps being able to listen to people at something like this today.”
 
“It definitely gives you more of a need to read the book,” Mimi said. “Now I want to read it more because I want to see what everybody’s perspectives are like in it.”
 
Leathers-Arnold said it was important for students to hear about historical events from people who were there at the time. All three panelists shared their experiences through personal stories that kept the attention of everyone in the audience.
 
“This is huge,” Leathers-Arnold said. “For students to get to listen to primary sources and learn about these concepts is something that’s really critical. They’re going to be able to take away a lot of knowledge from today.”

 
Leathers-Arnold’s students were joined by members of Jim Rosenburger’s Differentiated American Literature course at the presentation. They are not reading “Fallen Angels” this year, but they are working with the concept of differing American perspectives and how those impact society.
 
The audience learned from the panelists that Americans expressed a wide range of viewpoints throughout the war. The country’s military involvement in Vietnam began in February 1961 and lasted until May 1975. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in the war and 58,220 lost their lives.

 
Walter Dean Myers served in the U.S. Army for three years before the Vietnam War. He wrote “Fallen Angels” in 1988 as a tribute to his younger brother, who was killed while serving in the war.
 
“Fallen Angels” earned multiple national awards after it was released. Myers received the Coretta Scott King Book Award, American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, International Reading Association/Children’s Book Council Young Adult Choice, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and National Council for Social Studies/Children’s Book Council “Notable Children’s Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies.”
 
The main character in the book, Richie Perry, enlists in the military after high school and serves in the Vietnam War. The story follows Perry throughout his wartime experiences. It deals with the efforts to understand and emotionally absorb the idea of conflict and combat on a human level.

 
Leathers-Arnold said one of the goals of the class is to help students learn how to analyze information in a thoughtful way. Examining a variety of accounts and sources not only can allow them to understand literature better, but it can also help them build a solid foundation for their own viewpoints and assessments.
 
“Developing those types of skills is something that’s important,” Leathers-Arnold said. “We want to help students learn how to do that.”
 
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