Chapter 7: Classroom Queerness and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): “A mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault” (National Center for PTSD).

As someone who teaches writing at the college level, I encounter a diverse array of students. This narrative particularly focuses on the experiences I had teaching two non-traditional students who had developed PTSD as a result of serving in active duty in the military.

I’m always re-thinking, re-imagining, and re-adjusting my pedagogy based on the individual needs of students who come through my classes, and having the opportunity to teach these two students showed me that 1) veterans have unique concerns that impact their learning in traditional classroom spaces, and 2) these needs seem to be frequently ignored and/or overlooked by instructors and universities as a whole.