Talking Points 5

Joseph kahne and Joel Westheimer
Kahne argues that service learning has two approaches one is when you do a charity or fundraiser for a specific cause the other is going into the community and interacting to do service learning. By working in the community you are actually interacting with people and the experience is a fuller one. By just doing a charity you aren’t getting full experience if you aren’t working with the community. In the article it demonstrates this with the two classes. The first group of kids did errands for doctors, preparing survival kits for the homeless. This is an act of generosity and giving of ones time, but they are doing it more behind the scenes and don’t really know who the people they are doing this for. The second class the kids examined homelessness and brought in speakers and made plans to help the homeless. This group actually worked in the community and worked with people from homeless shelters to help aid the homeless.
When I was a freshman I went and did Habitat for humanity. What I did was go to Orlando, Florida and I was there for a week and worked in the community. The work we did was in a section of Orlando where the houses were not kept up on and the people in the area had financial issues. Many of us went and did different things some did babysitting, others worked in stores, others worked on houses. I worked on a specific person’s house. During the week people would go with there groups they were put in and work on the houses. We would paint the houses, clean the yard, fix the fences etc. Through the week though we interacted with the people who lived in the houses and by doing service learning like this it allowed us to connect to the people we were doing this for. Many of the people that we met were very nice and were so appreciative of the work that we were doing. It is very easy to just send money to something and that is your good deed, but by working in the community you get hands on experience and see the people who you are dealing with. When I did this I enjoyed it very much and I was sad to see the week go by so fast. By working in an area too it allows you to break down the stereotypes and negative appearances that people put on areas and places. If someone tried to work in the ghetto people would automatically assume that if they went there that they would get shot or robbed. When people go into these areas though and work to build a better community that isn’t going to happen and many of the people who live there are just like everyone else and are probably nice. People would rather just send something or make a care package as an easy way out so they don’t have to put in the extra effort and go work in the community that needs help.