IN THE SERVICE OF WHAT?

IN THE SERVICE OF WHAT?

　

By Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

 

“In the moral domain. service learning activities tend toward two types of relationships. Relationships that emphasize charity we will call "giving." Those that aim primarily to deepen relationships and to forge new connections we will call "caring."”

While in service learning, you do develop these two types of relationships. The relationship of giving to me stands for giving the kids something back in return for all their hard work. For instance helping them out with something or rewarding them when they learn something new. Being there for them through the process of learning means more to them then people can imagine and giving them that support is a great feeling. Caring for the students comes to play when talking about being there when no one else is there.

“Educators and legislators alike  maintain that service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom.”

Service learning can improve the community and invigorate the classroom. I think that this says a lot. This is because service learning can improve the community not only in the classrooms but also the volunteers that are doing it. When doing service learning I feel like even if I did a little that day, I have done so much just by being there for the kids when they need someone to talk to or ask a simple question. Service learning also improves the classroom because the kids are getting a chance to ask someone other then the teacher for help when they are busy and sometimes even us VIPS volunteers can teach them different methods which helps in the long run.

“Students in Atlanta must complete 75 hours of volunteer service to graduate. Maryland now requires that all high school students perform 75 hours of community service prior to graduation or participate in an alternative district program approved by the state.”

I can personally relate to this because in order to graduate my high school, we needed 80 hours of community service to graduate. Although when you first hear 80 hours of community service, it seems like a lot, it really isn’t. When you do these hours you just feel like you are doing so much good for different communities no matter what project you are doing. Like the students in Maryland, we also had to write about the experiences and I can honestly say I had a smile on my face when writing about my experience. I think all schools should do some type of community service it will help you, and it will help others.

 

Reading this article also makes me relate it to this FNED class because without this class relating to service learning like the teachers in this article, we would not have the opportunity to be at the schools we are at now. Also we get to read articles that most of us have never heard of. For instance I can relate this to Teaching Multilingual Children. Without reading this article I would not be able to carry it in to my service learning classroom which does have many children who do not speak this language and I am super thankful for this now, instead of having to deal with it the hard way later.

 

TALKING POINTS- I think that service learning is so helpful. without doing this class and doing service learning I feel as though I would not have known half of what I already know just in a few weeks alone.