In this article Kahne and Westheimer talk about service learning and the benefits of it. By using service learning kids can not only benefit in school but also improve the community. the article then goes into two cases of service learning. The to teachers that were followed were Mr. Johnson and Ms. Adams. Both teachers had different approaches Johnson let his students pick their own service learning project and Adams had her kids focus on homelessness. Even though they had different approaches on handling their service learning projects they both provided learning experiences dealing with social concern.
I think that social learning projects are great things for people of any age to be a part of. having projects like this help out the community in which you are living in, and also has children learn and grow from the experience. Some kids might really enjoy their project and would want to continue with it even when the class is over. Plus another big thing is by having kids work on these projects they are less likely to get into trouble because they will be to busy working on them.
One of my friends brothers is now in high school and just the other day he was saying his class was doing a service learning project. He wasn't to happy about it but I believe by the end of the project he will have learned a lot and probably didn't think it was that bad. I strongly believe there really isn't a down side to service learning projects and they should have a lot more being planted into are schools, not only for the kids to learn but to start making our communities better.
Last year my brother was assigned a service learning project during his junior year in high school, he hated the initial thought of spending his free time working with/helping others, but by the end of the project he loved it, and now continues to volunteer places, he understands the importance of "giving back".
ReplyDeleteCommunity service is more than improving the community. It is also an opportunity to improve the volunteer.
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