"What is Vietnam?"

I am a middle school librarian.

My student demographic reflects the city I live in. Some very wealthy, mostly middle class, some in section 8 housing.

Last week, I was working with a small group of kids on technology--- four students. Again, these four were in the different demographic range as reflected by our city. We were just having fun, exploring some new chrome books, and discussing how they could use this technology in the media center for their classroom projects.

I was not paying attention to the banter, and was demonstrating a chrome app, when one of the kids said, "My Dad went to Vietnam and has issues." OK, Now I am listening. These students are not anywhere near old enough to have a parent that served in Vietnam. Maybe grandparents....if that. I might have heard him wrong- he might have said, "My GRAND Dad..."

What floored me was the response from the other three: "What IS Vietnam? I have heard of it......"