Monday, October 17, 2011

Extended comment to Elyssa's blog: In the service of what? -Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

In Elyssa's blog, she discusses the negative effect that service learning can have.  She argues that when charity is made into a requirement, students will see it as only that and not a chance to grow or help others. I believe this is true and experienced the same thing in high school.  I knew I wanted to graduate as easily as possible so when faced with this obstacle, I chose the easiest option instead of the one that interested me most.  This can make charity seem like a chore when it would be best to see it as a part of life.

In addition, the article also mentions how service learning can sort of "miss the point".  For example, the students who made the kits for the homeless.  This was a real opportunity to find out about the lives of homeless people and learn from them and implement a useful change in society. But instead, the student did not have interaction with the homeless and therefore missed the opportunity. Like the article said, this was a form of "giving" instead of "change"

However, in the big picture service learning is a positive thing.  Any sort of charity is a good thing and even though it can be better, it is still a step in the right direction.  I think service learning should be required of everybody but so should discussions about how it could be made more successful.

3 comments:

  1. Shannon, I agree with both you and Elyssa. When something is forced upon you, you do it just to get it done and to get a good grade. But if it wasn't a requirement would you do it for fun? I honestly don't know if I would so I try to make the best out of my community service

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  2. It is a very tricky situation. In both cases you are doing a good thing essentially and helping but it ultimately comes down to the bandaid approach or the surgery. Are you doing it as a easy fix or actually makeing a difference?

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  3. This made me think. As I said in my blog, my high school required 25 hours a year of community service in order to graduate. A lot of my fellow students hated it, but still did it because they were forced to. I actually enjoyed doing community service, and even after finishing the required 25 hours a year, I continued. I only kept track of the amount of hours I put into it so I could make sure I hit the required amount. After reaching that goal, I continued. I'd beg my mom to let me go to the recreation center because I enjoyed helping and tutoring students. I didn't enjoy having to deal with the child abuse case, only because it was heartbreaking, but I still did it because I knew it would make a difference.

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