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The DialogueQuestion:
There are four basic reasons why service learning should be required in the college curriculum. First, service learning relates to the mission of higher education and to the educational outcomes most higher education institutions seek. Service learning helps faculty move students from passivity to active learning. The service learning approach requires faculty to challenge students to create real world connections in their learning and to reflect on and analyze problems. Service learning is a natural extension of what we as faculty do. Second, service learning promotes the personal, career, moral, and ego development of students. We all know undecided or uncommitted students, as well as students who lack adequate knowledge and experience in the areas of career choice. Service learning helps students gain the experience needed to make better occupational and career choices. Third, with elementary and secondary school systems restructuring their curricula to include service learning components, it stands to reason that higher education should do so also, to promote meaningful articulation. Finally, including service learning in the higher education curriculum would represent a step toward creating global connections. Nigeria, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Mexico are only a few of the countries forging ahead in this area. These nations are helping students make real world connections through mechanisms like service learning. America should follow these models. All in all, service learning enables faculty to broaden learning opportunities and assist the community. * Beryle Baker, a higher education activist with NEA's state affiliate in Georgia, the Georgia Association of Educators, teaches at Georgia Perimeter College. She is a former member of the Thought & Action Review Panel.
Making every student engage in service learning in order to graduate from college is as pointless as making every student take ballet before they graduate. Without a doubt, ballet is a powerful and expressive art form, but not every student is good at it, nor does every student want to do it. The same goes for service learning. Most service learning entails extensive, personal interaction between the student and people outside the classroom setting. Some students just aren't "people" people and don't perform well in these sorts of situations. The thought of serving in a soup kitchen, for example, of reading to the bedridden, or of teaching science to a class of K-6 graders simply has no appeal to these students. Some students are just plain scared of this kind of learning. Maybe it's because they are the more passive type of learner. Maybe they're just life-long victims of acute stage fright. Whatever the reason, its unfair to force such students into a service learning situation. Requiring service learning of students who can't or won't be successful at it is also a recipe for disaster for those on the receiving end. Students forced to help out in an urban neighborhood, to provide aid in a homeless shelter, or who are pressured into presenting before a class of youngsters are going to leave those they "help" with the belief that they were nothing more than guinea pigs for the student. Service learning as a voluntary option in the classroom is another matter. There is, indeed, room in the curriculum for all types of learning. But service learning should not be required. * Mark Benvenuto teaches in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Detroit Mercy. He is a member of the University of Detroit Mercy Faculty Association. Where Do You Stand? Send comments to CLehane@nea.org. You can also discuss the issue on the NEA higher ed Web site at www.nea.org/he. |
