Understanding Service
Before Reading this reading, I did not know there were so many different opinions on Community Service. I just thought everybody thought the same thing about it, which is you just go and help people and then get a warm fuzzy feeling inside. I never thought about the fact that there could be different opinions on it. I really agreed with Emily Dawson, first year student on page 45. Her definition of community service is exactly how I would define it too. I really disagree with A First Year Student on page 43. I don’t think that community service just means working with people in your community. I think it is also about working with people in other communities. I really thought this student sounded very selfish, especially when they said, “But helping people who live nearby, who share the same land, laws, government, and weather moves me to have a concern for their well-being; that is community service. In a sense, it is helping myself by improving the general situation around me, which affects me in so many visible and not visible ways.� This quote just sounded very selfish to me and it seems like this student is doing community service for the wrong reasons. He is doing it to better himself than to better the people he is supposed to be helping.
Comments
I agree with you on the point that this student sounded very selfish in his comment regarding his idea of “community service�. In my opinion, it sounds like his motives behind helping are to better his community and government rather than the lives of people who truly need help. I also believe that it is this mindset that has segregated communities into sections of race and class. By being concerned for their “well being� he is really only ensuring his own survival instead of bettering theirs, as he should be worried about. Community service is about helping others, regardless of community and, in return, learning from them without actually being formally taught.
Posted by: Sarah Stackley | September 17, 2006 10:16 PM
I agree with you when you say that community service isn't just about your community, but about other communities as well. In my opinion, you get more out of working with other communities where you might not know anyone or their beliefs. Every summer I go to Appalachia and help fix homes. When we first get there it is kind of awkward because we have to learn all of the families beliefs and things, but by the end of the week none of us want to leave because the family and their beliefs became part of who we are. If everyone only helped their community, they wouldn't understand much of what else is out there. However, if people just help anywhere they can, especially if it is a different community, I think that will benefit the community and the person much more. It may sound like I am being selfish, but that is not it at all. By helping other families and seeing how much they appreciate what you have done for them, that really makes you realize how important community service is and it will change you. I know that the first time I did community service, I was very nervous, but now I count down the days until I leave as soon as I get back. Community service is very important and if we all help out other communities besides our own then it will benefit society as a whole.
Posted by: Devon Sinclair | September 18, 2006 10:31 AM