Kahne and Westheimer Response

When I started reading, it felt like I was reading the discussion that we have in class. In that service learning is so important. And it really is, like this article is saying, not only does it engage others into academic learning and activities, but it also has the potential to make these kids feel like they can make a difference too by volunteering and helping others. I think that it is great that everyone is trying to make an effort to promote service learning. If everyone is brought up right from the beginning, then over time hopefully everything will be better and the problems that we face today with violence and just any sort of corruption in general could go away. Like Lawrence Cremin said "by manipulating the school curriculum, they could ultimately change the world. Now I realize that that is no easy task and will probably never be done 100% effectively, but the effort is what counts.

The first service case learning I'm pretty sure I've done before. It's been a long time, but I know what it feels like to help people less fortunate than others, and it feels good to see how happy the littlest things make people. So to have every student do that at least once must have a big impact on each of their lives. The second service learning case sounds kind of fun as well. Though it sounds like a pain to learn so much about one topic, if they are all very interested then it may not be so bad. It's good to learn about (in this case) the homeless and to actually hear from a guest speaker what it is like to be homeless, and read what homeless kids go through. You learn a whole new perspective about things and it can change your life.

I personally think that the two methods are both pretty effective. The first is effective because it gives you a hands on experience on helping those in need, and also lets you know how you can help. For instance some might want to help but just don't know what they can do, if they had done something like this than maybe they would have some ideas. While the second method doesn't give you hands on experience, it enlightens you to the problem and lets you know that many problems do exist, and that they affect many people.