In the Service of What?

In the Service of What?
The Politics of Service Learning
Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer
This was a very relatable article for me. As volunteering was a part of the religious education (CCD) I received, as well as a part of the curriculum for the Catholic School I attended (grades 4-8), as a part of the Child Studies program I was a part of in high school for 3 years, additionally as a requirement both for my graduation of high school and as a requirement for the National Honors Society I was a part of, you could definitely say volunteering in many ways is something I have been doing for a long time.
I have babysat for single mothers for free, interned in preschools and special education classes for hundreds of hours, tutored students before and after school, participated in food drives, worked at food pantries, participated in benefit shows, danced for the elderly, sold snacks at sporting events, raked leaves, ran the Pennies for Patients Drive at my school, participated in 3 Teacher Appreciation Days, and donated and volunteered at countless other events. But never, have I ever written a reflection on any of these experiences as this text suggests.
Do I feel good after a day of volunteering? Sure. But do I feel as if I have changed the world, or learned something? No, not really. At first when reading this article I felt like it was trying to demean or diminish the volunteering that I had previously done. But then I realized that wasn't what it was trying to do at all. What I came to understand from the article was that if people continue to go about volunteering in the ways in which I had been, the cycle of need for volunteers will never be broken. There will be a constant need for help and assistance because no one is learning from the assistance they are giving. But, perhaps if while we are volunteering, we are also looking for solutions, problems, causes and effects, then actual change may be made and a problem may be solved, and the need for volunteering in that area may decrease, so we can then move on to helping and using our efforts in other needy areas .

The service learning project we are asked to do for this class provides me with the first opportunity to do the kind of volunteering described in this article. It asks us to reflect upon our experiences and relate it to articles, ideas and topics we have learned and discussed while in FNED. I am really looking forward to seeing what more there is to gain from a volunteer experience when a reflective aspect is added.