There are days when I am simply stunned at how much truly genuine care is emanating from our Armed Forces for the families of soldiers, sailors and Marines. With my involvement in retreats for combat veterans transitioning to civilian life, I know full well the near unbearable stress of multiple tours on the family dynamic. As T.S. Elliot once said, “how much reality can humankind handle.” And he meant adults. How much can a child really handle with an absent parent who is constantly in harms way?
The following narrative was provided by Marie Fararr Knowles.
Studies show that one of the many stresses of deployment, especially for older children, is dealing with school. In the Tucson area alone, there are at least 1,000 students intimately affected by war, with a parent currently deployed. In fact, there are 10 school districts within the region with students from military families.
To help combat school stress, the Department of Defense has funded a worldwide 24/7 online tutoring program that is free to military families. The program — Tutor.com for Military families — enables students to connect with a live tutor 24 hours a day, seven days a week for help with homework and test prep in math, science, social studies and English. To date, 200,000 online tutoring sessions have been completed by military families.
The community kickoff will be held, March 3, 6-8 pm, at Fort Huachuca. It is open to all military families and instructors interested in the resource.
Darrell Leigh, school liaison officer, U.S. Army, is available to comment on the topic of military education.
Students and families can also be made available.
Best,
Marie Farrar Knowles