In the service of what? by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer
"The idea that educators should foster a volunteer ethic and encourage youths to give something back to their school or community currently receives widespread support."
I think that service learning is very beneficial to students. It allows them to see more than what they usually surround themselves with everyday. Children can only learn so much about what's in the world through the classroom and going out into the community really helps them get a better understanding of the world around them. This is a great graduation requirement and not only does it better the student but it betters those who they are helping.
"We do not volunteer "to make a statement," or to use the people we work with to protest something."
I really admired this quote. I can't generalize and say that all people do this but the experience that I've had with people and volunteering is that they are doing it for the wrong reasons. Those reasons could be anything from that they're doing it because they have to or they're doing to make some sort of a point. When I volunteer, I do it because I want to be there and I want to help the people that I'm working with. I like the fact that volunteer work is often required for things like graduation from high school but I also think that we should teach people to do it for the right reasons.
"Clearly, having students share their thoughts and experiences with one another can be valuable, but reflective activities (commonly in the form of journal entries and discussions) may simply reinforce previously held beliefs and simplistic, if generous. conclusions."
This quote really made me think about the service learning required for this class. At first I didn't really like the idea of having to write journal entries for our service learning but after doing a few they really made me think. Anyone can do service learning and leave without a single thought about what they just experienced. Writing the journals really solidifies the experience and makes us think less about what we did on and more about the details and what we should take away from the experience.
In class I would like to talk about which type of service learning people favor, Mr. Johnson's or Ms. Adams? But get more into detail about why (the fact that students get to chose individually or the collaborative effort)
3 comments:
I agree with thinking the journals are really helpful. I have a terrible memory and I dont think I would learn as much from these sessions if I didnt write something down after each one!
I like the quotes you pulled out they were good ones from the article. I also think writing all sessions down is helpful, it's what I do too.
The journals are definitely key. It forces you to think about fluff to fill the pages. Then you read what you wrote and it changes the way you see the world.
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