Talking Point #5

In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning
By: Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer

Premise:
-Service Learning
-Community
-Tutoring
-Learning
-Relationships
-Social
-Homelessness
-Ways to help
-Change
-Charity
-Moral development
-Political
-Intellectual

Argument:
-Kahne and Westheimer argue that teachers, policy makers and academicians who take the idea service learning seriously need to come together and get on the same page.

Evidence:
- The two examples of service learning projects are and example. There is a difference betweeen charity and change and because of that some children miss out due to the different projects that are assigned.
-Because teachers are not on the same page about educating children about service learning the children that went to the school to play music were scared and not happy to be helping.
-Most of the time children are volunteering for charity, such as the boy who made care packages for the homeless. This boy in particular didn't even talk to any of the homeless people he was trying to help. He served but, he didn't learn.

Comments:
- I think that a main part of service is learning from it. If your just serving because it's something that you have to do you may not get much out of it. Personally I LOVE my service learning project. It is something that I would love to do even if it wasn't required. It has really given me a chance to learn about a community that I didn't know much about before. I feel like children need to be educated and encouraged to help out in different communitites so that they aren't afaraid of what they don't know, like the music teachers students were.