Service Learning Speech

Finally, a sunny day! I was about to move to Australia.

Service Learning

Based on goals and principles:
- to construct a sense of civic responsibility in students
~ emphasize duty rather than ambiguous "charity"
- to give students hands-on, subject-related experience in the world as part of an education
~ Peter Block's theory of education relates to experience of teaching middle school debate
- to build good relations with the community and successfully respond to a significant community need

-paraphrased from Communication as Critical Inquiry in Service-Learning, by Spoma Jovanovic (2003).

In order to construct civic responsibility,
- encourage independence
~ make students take the initiative - it's beneficial if the student can provide own
transportation, resources, ideas, etc.
- encourage original theory
~ having students do theory will ensure their most thorough understanding of the class topics, as well as the political philosophy of civic service
~ students can apply real-world experiences as a form of research (keeping in mind the dangers of anecdotal evidence in some instances)

Mundane work:
- alone, not legitimate
- in conjunction with other activity (and continuing to meet other criteria), this is legitimate
~ mundane work is after all part of the "real world"
~ can accomplish all of our goals
- Example: letter data entry

Acknowledge overlap of personal and political:
- Allow students to advocate a political perspective with their research
~ ensure that community need is still met, regardless
- Encourage political discourse (or political philosophy) as part of class discussion
and reflection