In The Service of What?

To be honest, I had no idea what service learning was before reading this article, but after reading about it and doing a little more research I can say that I am now an advocate for it. Being a Tech Ed. student and eventually when I become a Tech Ed. teacher, I can see service learning being very beneficial to my students who will be more likely to be hands on type of students. The community service can allow them to get out into the real world and apply the skills they've learned say in manufacturing class, for example the service could be fixing up the home of a needy family or something along those lines.

Students from all classes can benefit from service learning. Students from an affluent community, where most of the kids are handed everything and have it all. These are the children, in my opinion that are least in touch with real society and it's needs. When these kids get out there and see real people and real problems will give them better perspective on their own lives and maybe help some them not to take for granted that they are more privileged. Then the students who come from say an inner city school system where their home life might not be so great or who are just generally oppressed will also benefit due to the fact that they will be out in their own communities helping too make them better in turn they will take pride in their work and ultimately their community. The other benefit to service learning is that it keeps kids occupied, a bored kid with nothing to do will eventually get themselves into trouble or mischief.

All in all service learning and the concept of "The joy of reaching out to others" will be very beneficial not only to students, but to teachers as well as the community.

Check out this site it has a good video and some good info on service learning.

http://www.servicelearning.org/what-service-learning