In the Service of What?

The Politics of Service Learning

Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer
Week 9

Reflection:
If we did not reflect on our service learning i do not think i would be as knowledgeable as i am now. Reflecting helps analyze occurrences we might had to deal with, maybe a child refusing to learn or always expecting candy when they do a good job as described in "5 Reasons to stop saying Good Job." Johnson's students were given an assignment to help in the community so they could learn a lesson from helping another group. The only reflection his assigned his students was to write a one to two paragraph summary. Some students spoke of new insights while others did not. When there is some form of volunteering done there should be some kind of fulfilling reflection (Kahne 4).

Speaking about this with others gives us clarity to our confusion because everyone has an opinion and ideas that might differ from ours. In my perspective reflecting helps me significantly because i love to think about all i have seen so far at R.F. Kennedy since I am exposed to education in a whole new perspective. The idea of not reflecting mystifies my train of thought. How is it a bad thing? Growing up i was always told to reflect because i was going to gain a lesson from it. This reminded me of when i was in high school during my days as a honor student. One of our requirements we had to acquire before the end senior year was to accomplish 75 hours of community service. We did not have to write about it or talk about it during our meetings, looking back to that i feel like we could have done some much with it. The whole idea of being on the honor society was because you were a good citizen with the desire to improve the community of the school. 

Educators and politicians have discovered that  90% of teenagers from ages 14 to 17 give some of their time to people in need. I find it a little hard to believe because from personal experience i have learned that it does not necessarily make you a nice person, or some teens are forced to do it because it might be a graduation requirement. For example, high schools located in Maryland require students to accumulate 75 hours of community service and even schools in Vermont and New York are in the works of making that a new rule (Kahne4). I understand that it might be a requirement but ask yourself, "how many students actually want to give up some of their free time?" I mean the young adults who jump at the opportunity to help build a house with habitat for humanity or clean up trash at a state park, not the young adults who are dragged there by their parents.

Comments:

Ernest Boyer stated that "altruism can best be appreciated as an experience rather than an abstraction."
Boyer is right because to genuinely appreciate volunteering you must experience what its like to help others instead of watching someone volunteering their time.

While reflecting helps academically it also helps emotionally throughout life. Personally i feel better when I reflect on the past it acts a therapy to control my emotions.