Why Service?

          This semester, I’m choosing to participate in Service Learning at Tunbridge Public Charter School, helping in classrooms during the school day in whatever way I can. This will be my second Service Learning opportunity, and my fourth placement in Baltimore Public Schools. My last service learning opportunity was the fall of my freshman year, where through my literacy education class, we went to Guilford Elementary School and helped with reading interventions for children identified as below where they should be. Through Field Experience courses for my teacher certification, I have also been placed at Liberty Elementary and Baltimore Lab School to observe and participate in these school settings. What I have experienced is a world completely different from the environment in which I received my education, a private, PreK-12, day school in Princeton, New Jersey. It is this juxtaposition that shapes not only my desire to be a teacher, but my decision to take part in Service Learning at Tunbridge, and to get involved in the greater Baltimore community in general. 

           Our readings this week strongly reinforce the call to help others, and to appreciate the lives and stories of others. In The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education, Kolvenbach discusses our responsibility as a Jesuit campus to live in “the service of faith and the promotion of justice” (25). Kolvenbach argues that we must use our resources and influence to create real change in the communities around us. This change starts with students and professors engaging with those who need our help, and using our privilege to help others. As a student, and future teacher, I have chosen to engage in the promotion of justice by applying my passion for teaching and learning to those who are not as fortunate as me, through projects like the one at Tunbridge. This article also speaks of the important role that education plays in forming a more just society. Even though the context of these statements is Jesuit Universities as an educational institution, I find the idea that “our prime educational objective must be to form men for others” (29) to be very relevant to myself as a future educator. I also plan to use my work with younger generations to spread ideas of peace and love to eventually create a more just world. 

           In “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, we meet two neighbors who are constantly rebuilding the wall between their two properties and constantly asking themselves why they continue building the wall. When one neighbor recites “Good fences make good neighbors”, the other finds himself asking “Why do they make good neighbors?”. To me, this connects to my service learning, because around the country, especially in cities like Baltimore, we find ourselves allowing walls between us and people who are unlike us, with no rhyme or reason. By working with and getting to know the children at schools like Tunbridge, I force myself to look deeper into the reasons why our society has built these walls separating us, and how we can begin to tear them down. In “accident, Mass. Ave”, Jill McDonough explores similar themes by telling the story of two drivers who collide, and begin to argue with each other angrily, only to discover that no real damage has been done to either car. Upon discovering that no harm came to either car, the drivers embrace and forgive each other. This too is important to keep in mind throughout my experiences in Baltimore schools, as we are so quick to judge or react, that we often forget to ask ourselves why, as we may do with children whose stories we are not fully aware of. McDonough reminds us that a little bit of understanding can go a long way, and is vital in each of our interactions with the people around us. “Learning To Read” by Frances E W Harper carries a slightly different, but nonetheless important, theme. This poem tells the story of freed slaves learning to read, and how much it means to them. The narrator of the poem is truly liberated even in her old age, simply by being able to read The Bible for herself. This message is important to me, because not only does it show the incredible gift of literacy, which I hope to give to others, but also shows how something so small to many, can mean so much to others. Overall, I hope that my Service Learning not only serves me by allowing me to pursue my love for teaching and learning, but also serves others by allowing me to make an impact in the lives of the students at Tunbridge.