Service-Learning

I believe in service-learning. I have long been a champion of the pedagogy, for at least 15 years by my count. I ran a big SL program. I argued and fought long/hard for that program. I made many friends and more than a few enemies through SL. Being the "executive director" of a SL non-profit 501(c)3 taught me more than 10 years of college ever did. I also served in the decade I was engaged in SL administration (and frankly lots of field hours painting, picking up trash, etc. for I believed a leader must also serve)...more then than in the other 3/4 of my life...and more likely more than I ever will again.

It's powerful to have something to believe in.

Now, having said that, I sometimes wonder about the edges of SL. What the general definition of SL encompasses is: learning from service. That should have been founded on community voice and input, should be meeting a legitimate need, should be empowering and improving the servant and those served, and should always have a learning component (otherwise, it's just volunteering). Definitions overlap when considering civic engagement, community service, etc.

One area of overlap that I am leaning more toward all the time: internships. Traditionally SL stops a mile shy of the internship, for that smells too much like self-serving engagement in the lucrative world of the for-profit. In other words, bleeding heart types often would rather keep their eggs all in the basket of social service and social change. Volunteering becomes something else when a company that could afford to hire someone capitalizes on hapless do-gooders.

Still....if someone is giving their time to the greater good (even the corporate greater good) and if they are learning from it, then it seems to have potential that in all my program development we never explored. Students win. The company wins. Even the college could win, in that they might garner corporate $upport and $cholarship monies in exchange for farming out interns. Writing that out makes it seem a bit too much like bad business for colleges, but is it? Really? Is it unethical? Is it somehow lessening the umpah of ServiceLearning?

I am unresolved.