After reading this article, I thought about Kahne's and Westheimer's two service learning cases, how they pointed out the differences in change and charity for both cases and how their examples reminded me of how volunteering with inspiring minds and completing 25 hours total of community service is a requirement for getting into the Feinstein School of Education.
I know that in my Schooling in a Democratic Society class, the way that we share and reflect about our service learning, we are sort of treating this service learning as a community service. We are doing this because it is a requirement. I know we are all enjoying and learning from our experiences but after we're done with our services, are we really going to take in our experiences, good or bad, from our schools and make a change? Morally, I'm sure we all care about the students we are tutoring and the teachers we are helping but politically there's no social reconstruction. From the stories I've heard in class there are teachers or teacher assistants who frankly do not deserve their jobs. They seem to be careless and bitter and are not pursuing their careers the way the are supposed to. Obviously, since I'm majoring in Elementary Ed, it is important to me that students are learning and enjoying themselves in school.
We are just college students visiting classrooms so maybe we believe there isn't really a difference to make but maybe if we spoke up and shared concerns we can somehow spark the change these public school classrooms need. I know that I am soaking in every bit of my experience so that I know what to do and not do when I become an educator. Maybe that will be me making a difference to my future students.
