In the Service of What?

1.)  ....."They had expected them to be "rude, tough, noisy, and very unfriendly. even "mean and of gang-related blacks...." I picked this quote because it was said by a student who was describing their feelings and thoughts about an elementary school that they were going to perform at. The reason why this student thought those characteristifcs of this elementary school is because it was in a poorer neighborhood and their parents had spoke of how to be careful there. I immediatley connected to this, because this is somewhat similar to what myself and others in FNED 346 had thought about the providence schools. our pre-notions of volunteering at a school in downtown providence were similar and we were put on unease. i know my feelings were "how come i have to volunteer in providence, why not like pawtucket (my hometwon) , where its familiar and easy/safe. & when the middle schoolers , returned their perspectives changed. they realized that the students were polite, well-behaved and friendly these responses were mine exactly my first couple days at carl lauro.  I dont know reading that quote my mind wandered off to "VIPS"!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) I liked it!

2.)  I dont fully agree with the paragraph talking about students being required to complete a certain number of hours to graduate. I mean i think everybody should participate in community service learning , and i also agree that service should be viewed as transformational , however not all students have the time to give time to the community. and if every state was to put this into their school's curriculums, it would be hard because some students work or have to babysit or be home for home responsibilities. In my high school we offered a public govenment class called " Public Administration" and in that class we had to complete hours of service learning at a state non profit organization. If you wanted to take the class then you could but if you didnt you didnt have to. i think if people want to incorporate service learning in their schools they should do it like this ; a class that you can or dont take.

3.)  "A transformative educational experience requires that students engage in critical thinking in the "strong" not the "weak sense" . I think this is important , because it basically goes along with this entire class. we volutneer with VIPS and we are required to think critically and evaluate our visits each week in our journals. On the contrary to our little class debate I feel service learning is better off and more apprecited through the lens of a transformative experience. when you realize your surroundings around a school, soup kitchen, or homeless shelter, you can start forming concise conclusions as to why things are the way they are. and then maybe just maybe, form a bigger group to take on the bigger task of fixing the bigger picture.

Overall, i really liked this article. I found that there were many paragraphs in which i related to or conntected to because of this class. This class is really making me think about school and democracy with citizens in a new light. And before taking this class, my thought process wasnt anything like it is now. Being part of VIPS has changed my persepctive of the quote unquote "downtwon providence" . Children are children , no matter where you go.