"In the Service of What?" by Kahne and Westheimer-Reflections

When I first started to read "In the Service of What", I had no idea what I was going to write about for this blog. So many different things popped into my head of what I have done for community service throughout the years of my schooling and throughout my own time.  Kahne & Westheimer point out to us readers different ways to community service and different ways that kids can get involved in these activities.

One thing that I have done for community service for a long time was adopt a kid at a local school.  My aunt teachers at a Middle School in Providence and every year around Christmas you are asked to buy that child you adopt a Christmas present.  These kids do not come from a lot of money and they enjoy getting the gift that you give them every year.  Most of them do not get a lot of presents so it is nice to see when they do get a gift how much they enjoy knowing that someone out their cares for them. 

Another thing that I have done is my aunt and I started to collet cloths from family members and friends that have old cloths to donate and give them to her school to pass out to kids that don’t have much money to spend on cloths.  As much as you don’t think about it many kids in these Providence don’t have the money to go spend on new cloths every season.  Some don’t come in with jackets or a pair of jeans that fits right.  It is hard to see these kids had barley anything.  So we decided to put our old cloths to use and start putting other kids in cloths. More kids come to school dressed right for the weather and appreciate what we give them. 

Kahne & Westheimer point out in one part of the reading that most states require students to do community service to graduate.  I never had to do that many hours besides my senior project community service where I taught kids skating and dance, put on a show for their parents at the end of the year, but I think it is a great idea to get kids involved in community service to graduate.  They can see a whole new world and it might changes some kids minds on what they want to do.  They should get more state involved to do this.

                                     The school my aunt teaches at, Esek Hopinks Middle School

Points to Share:

I think it would be great to get more students at the high school and middle school levels to get involved with community service.  Also I wonder why some states don’t have students do community service hours as a part of graduation requirements?