History Comes Alive in Millbrook High Classroom as History-Makers Speak to Students


Retired Vice Admiral Tidd and wife Muggs greet students entering the Lessons of Vietnam class.

November 1, 2000 - A retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral in dress uniform recently greeted Millbrook High students entering Lindy Poling's Lessons of Vietnam classroom. It was the fifth semester in a row that Emmett Tidd and his wife Muggs visited the class and a day for which Poling had been preparing her class for weeks.

As a Vietnam-era military decisionmaker, Tidd was there to provide his perspective and insight about the conflict. He is one of a series of speakers Poling introduces to her students.

"We are right about the year 1965-66 in the course of the war where there are a lot of decisions to be made. Do we escalate? Do we pull back? Do we worry about economics only? Do we try to get other countries more involved?" said Poling. "Here we had the opportunity to have a vice admiral to come into the classroom who was actually one of the decisionmakers. Vice Admiral Tidd was chief of staff under Admiral Zumwalt, chief of naval operations. The students had a chance to learn a lot about leadership and decisions made and mistakes that were made and maybe how things could have been done differently. They learned a lot about the role of our military in the 1960s and 70s and also about the role of our military today, as we look at world crises. It has caused them to ask more questions and want to read more about it."

Poling's Community-in-the-Classroom approach looks to parents, community leaders, Vietnam veterans and Vietnam protesters, as well as Vietnam experts to help her students understand the complexity of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

"One of the first things that they do is interview their parents. Most of their parents are in their early 50s. Some have young parents so they have to find a neighbor, or a teacher who is a little older, someone close to them who they have never talked about this to before," said Poling. "The students see how emotional they get and also how much they have to say about it, and the students hear stories about people they knew in high school and in college. Some have learned that their parents were draft dodgers. Others have learned that they were drafted or they volunteered right away. These are things they had never learned from their parents before. I think that is one thing that it does for them. It helps bridge the gap between these kids and their parents. It's something for them to talk about. They actually go home and talk about this at the dinner table."

Poling's idea of bringing the community into the classroom helps her class to see the importance of learning from many different points of view.

"I try in every major U.S. History unit to have one or two guest speakers to come in to make that real world connection. So that's something they look forward to," said Poling. "These people I bring in, they are pretty interesting people. They are very personable, they are very knowledgeable, and they can make history come alive."

In his time with the students, Tidd talked about Vietnam, the USS Cole, and life in the Navy.

"The South Vietnamese are wonderful people," said Tidd. "They had for more than 20 years been going through this terrible war. Their leaders being targeted for assassination down to the village leadership level so there was a great inhibition to not be identified with the government, and yet, they would stand up and they would bear arms. Their home front was not protected like my home front was. When they went out on patrol, they were always wondering will food get to their family, would their family be alive when they got back."

The Vice Admiral helped the students understand what a terrible strain the sailors aboard the U.S. warship Cole were under after being attacked while in port at Yemen.

"That crew has been constantly fighting to save their ship and only through their determination has that been possible," said Tidd. "You may have heard that they lost electrical power. That was because one of the generators providing that power had a casualty. They worked for over 12 hours with no power or light on the ship and they were valiantly fighting the flooding. They had to resort to a bucket brigade until they got electrical power restored and electric pumps back on line."

And he told the high school seniors that many of those sailors were 19 and 20 years old.

"Just remember that there are a lot of folks out there not much older than you that are carrying a tremendous part of the burden," said Tidd. "I can't tell you what a lump it brings to my throat to remember the ones who served with me and made such a difference."

Technology has allowed Poling to get Tidd and her other guests directly involved with students. She pairs students up with a growing list of Vietnam experts to tackle specific issues.

"In class we develop a generic set of questions, but we have so many different groups going now that we have several sets of questions," said Poling. "What the students find as they go back and forth, either on the telephone as they are taking notes or through the e-mail link program, a lot of critical thinking is going on there, and they start developing their own questions. It's quite something. They give me copies of their e-mails. I love it because I learn so much, too."

Poling has been able to pair students with a woman who was a Red Cross worker in Vietnam who now works as a psychologist counseling vets, an army aerial photographer, career soldiers, draftees, and even matched a student who plans to attend VMI with a local veteran who is a VMI graduate.

"For a lot of them, it is special attention that an adult who actually had experience in this time period is giving them," said Poling. "That is a big deal to get that kind of one-on-one attention. I think you saw that with Kourtney today and the time Vice Admiral Tidd has given to her in his answers to her e-mail. They had never met personally until today. You could tell she felt like she knew him from their correspondence."

The Community-in-the-Classroom approach allows students to sift through the information they receive from speakers, interviews, and correspondence to understand the turmoil of the sixties.

"It benefits the students to have guest speakers in the classroom," said Stacey, a senior. "We learn so much more. I get more out of it than just reading a textbook. I get to hear their opinions and their views about the war and find out about their experiences."

And after each speakers' appearance, Poling has the students write a note of thanks. Here are some of the comments from students' letters to the Tidds:

Meredith: "You made such an impression on the class and on me personally. A Vice Admiral that is willing to come to talk to a high school class of 17- and 18-year-olds deserves much respect. Winning the Medal of Distinguished Service under Admiral Zumwalt is an honor that we were all in awe to hear about. We were also amazed at your list of famous people you have met. You should know you are now at the beginning of my list."

Jennifer: "I believe that my generation can learn from men like Admiral Zumwalt and you, two brave and dedicated men who served their nation proudly. The men who served under you were lucky to have such a determined leader."

Stefanie: "All of those awards that you have are very impressive, and I am honored that I had the privilege to meet you. I just wanted to let you know that your words and thoughts mean so much to me and you will always have my respect."

Introducing her students to Admiral Tidd and other guest experts makes history come alive in the classroom, said Poling. "I meet the neatest people. It is so exciting to get e-mail from these people that you meet with their new stories. These are true stories. I think one of the real highlights is that last year I went to a conference at William and Mary on the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. There were top journalists, outstanding veterans, historians, and filmmakers there. Two of the journalists - Joseph Gallway, who co-wrote We Were Soldiers Once and Young, and Zalin Grant, who wrote Survivors, link with my students. We e-mail regularly. The fact that they would take that time to give. That's just tremendously rewarding to me. We all learn so much."

There are two major events in the class. Students from the Millbrook and Broughton high schools' Lessons of Vietnam classes and their families organize a dinner with Raleigh veterans each semester. The class culminates with a spring trip to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C., a moment when the students confront the long list of names of Americans who were killed in the war. When they arrive, they will find a new National Park Service brochure for teachers at the memorial. It will recommend that teachers can help their students understand the conflict by visiting the website for the memorial or by visiting Lindy Poling's website at http://www.wcpss.net/community_in_the_classroom/