Chapter 2 from Service-Learning

After reading this chapter I felt as though time was reversing itself and the days of community college were on their way back. A year or so ago an ethics class was required in order to graduate SPC and one of the things held in high regard in the particular class was a service-learning project in the business world. Interestingly enough, The Arts Center downtown kindly welcomed me in order to volunteer, a means of exempting the exam if you had a decent grade. At first it some the comments in the chaper echoed the things going through my mind when I first arrived. Why am I here? This is using me for purposed beyond what a student should be... To be honest this line of thinking was both inaccurate and unfounded, because in the end the benefits were great.

Seeing things in a different perspective is the key to an open mind especially in these context and an ever changing business world. Nothing really confused me, most likely due to having previous experience, or my memory failing me so soon as to points that baffled me (highly unlikely). The entire theory and practice seem commonplace and straight forward these days.

Linking these points to our class is easy. We are studying technical writing tied with rhetoric and other foundations and service-learning is a hands on perspective and approach to this. By connecting with the community, ways of developing both sides are possible and the positive outcomes are numerable. One can only learn so much in theory and inside a classroom before experience and real world applications must be met to fulfill the larger goal.