Service Learning Reflection

Service learning can allow people to see the world from a different perspective. Since most humans tend to segregate into social groups based upon race or wealth, relating with people outside of one’s social group can be arduous. With service learning, someone will get to interact with people of different ethnicities and social classes. The article also addresses that providing services for people in need only provides a temporary solution for their reoccurring problems. Instead, with time and service learning, students will realize that the solution is to help a person in need permanently conquer his or her problems. Another concept from the article is being able to reflect from service learning and challenge your beliefs. In order for this to happen a person must provide service and reflect
I agree with the author throughout this reading simply because change occurs over time and attending limited service learning experiences will not change someone’s beliefs. However, continuous involvement and reflecting upon service learning will change the beliefs of someone. “But when they get to know these people well and begin to see them as “like me,” the differences create dissonance, and they are challenged to develop a worldview that can accommodate these discordant elements.” This quote from the text supports that after spending quality time with people different from yourself through service learning eventually those differences will begin to subside allowing the common similarities to form. The author states, “I thought of myself as a pretty smart person, but at the same time I hadn’t developed the awareness of how interconnected the social structures are and how people are affected.” I agree with the author that people are often blinded by their own social structures and through service learning a whole another world can be