The Benefits of a Service Learning Experience

In a traditional classroom setting your only responsibility is to yourself and the interactions that occur between yourself and others inside those four walls. The grade you get at the end of the semester is the main driving force to attend class and hand in assignments. When you think about it, what are we grading? The ability to follow directions is no impressive feat for even animals can be trained to behave on command. Grades therefore do not fairly reflect learning. I believe that application is the best test of learning because life occurs outside of the classrooms in which outdated textbooks form our only reality. In a traditional classroom the instructor has only to show up to class and lead discussion. Following which tests are distributed and grades are assigned. In a traditional classroom everyone is so self-involved, carrying through with the actions yet failing to challenge, to question, and, in turn, grow.
In a community-based experience the community you immerse yourself in is your textbook and what you see, feel, smell, taste and hear is information ready to be soaked up by the mind. You are responsible to learn the information because there are other people depending on you to help guide them. In a community-based experience the responsibilities of students and teacher work in terms of a pay it forward system. The teacher guides the students in the right direction, who in turn guide their community partners. These types of experiences show the community at large that we are there for them. We, the students, are the next generation of lawyers, businessmen, and doctors and we have the community we serve at heart. Rather than the traditional approach when we are virtually disconnected from the rest of society only to reemerge once we get our degree and not be aware of the issues that plague the communities we return to.
In a traditional classroom we wrote many papers and took many exams but the information would make its way into my brain as quickly as it flew out once we finished a chapter. It could be challenging working in a community because many times people are very cautious to let others help them because life has taught them to fend for themselves. They may look at us and think that we don’t understand their troubles. Community-based work can be challenging but in the end it’s that challenge, once overcome, that allows us to feel like we have made a difference.