High School students are exploring the lasting effects of war through a creative literature assignment focused on Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.
English teacher Nanceen Hoskins designed the project to help students understand the unseen emotional scars that veterans carry long after returning home.
“I wanted my students to realize that sometimes those who fight for our freedoms don’t know how to ask for help,” Hoskins said. “And even when we recognize there’s an issue, we may struggle to support them in the right way.”
To deepen their understanding, students stepped into the role of psychiatrists, diagnosing the novel’s characters with mental health conditions using text evidence. From PTSD to survivor’s guilt, each diagnosis had to be backed by examples from the book.
Beyond identifying trauma, students developed personalized treatment plans, mapped out the timeline of each character’s suffering, and predicted their future if they did or did not seek help.
For Sophomore Adalyn Peterson, the assignment changed her perspective.
“I never realized how much veterans go through after war,” Peterson said. “It made me think about how difficult it must be just to ask for help.”
Sophomore Anderson Cruce found the treatment-plan process to be the most challenging.
“It’s not simple to come up with a solution,” Cruce said. “You have to really think about what kind of support would actually help them recover.”
Hoskins plans to refine the assignment next year, requiring students to record their presentations to increase engagement. This addition will also help students develop stronger communication skills—abilities that will benefit them in future careers.
