Service Learning Experiences

Reflection Piece

While reading “In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning” by Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer I caught myself thinking about the service learning I have done throughout my life and the service learning I am doing now for this class.  I continuously was connecting the ideas brought up in this piece to what I am gaining throughout my service.  Kahne and Westheimer argue that in order for service learning to have some sort of impact there has to be learning gained through the experiences one is undergoing.  In other words, instead of just giving, take the time to struggle with the individuals you may be working with and see what it would be like to be in their situation and learn from that.

With this being said, I thought about my time spent in my third grade class at Carl Lauro Elementary School.  I asked myself what I thought of each experience I have had there and what knowledge I left with every week.  To be honest I do feel like I learned from working with these children.  Not only by gaining more experience in a teacher’s role but through the stories each child tells me.  With these stories I have a better understanding of what their lives are like on a daily basis in school and outside of school.  Not only do I gain an understanding of how difficult some of their lives can be everyday, I gain a new perspective to how lucky I have been throughout my entire life.  And with this, it makes me want to become a teacher even more than I did before.  This specific service learning has allowed me to experience the joys of service and also have the opportunity to have meaningful conversations and interactions with young students who have gone through so much in their lives.  But with this, I feel as if I have gained understanding and have learned from these experiences instead of just lending a hand.  And the best part about this all is that the twenty five or so students I am in a classroom with for two hours every week have no idea how much they are teaching me.  For this short time I am there, they are just extremely happy that I am there to give all of my attention to them, which may or may not be something they are used to receiving.

All in all, from this one particular service-learning project I have gained a new perspective beyond my own.  I have been able to step into my student’s shoes and view what their perspective may be.  When thinking back on this all, I can relate directly to Kahne and Westheimer's ideas and can honestly say that through my service learning I have done more than just “give”.  While assisting, I have learned more than you could ever imagine from each child I have the opportunity to work with.

Importance of Service Learning

In the link I attached above, there is an in depth definition of service learning.  Along with that, it talks about the benefits of using service learning to actually learn and how it is a different approach to learning.