The past week's class readings and discussions have really turned my mind more toward the broader picture of civic engagement and service learning. At the beginning of our course, I was excited about learning about nonprofits and writing for Project Angel Heart. Though I think I realized my actual volunteering would have no long-lasting impact, I liked to think about the good my writing would do for PAH (hopefully, if it was good enough, of course). Yet, after reading "Children in the Street," by Paula Mathieu, I've been thinking much more about the negative aspects of service-learning, and even the damage that students can cause to non-profits. While I am not insinuating in any way that our class or our university would cause such damage, I do believe that without examining how students, in general, have the capacity to do more harm than good, we leave ourselves open to commit such hurtful follies ourselves. I know, even in my own short volunteer past, I have made mistakes.
The first to come to mind is how I handled an incident that occured between siblings at a day camp I volunteered at last summer. When two brothers threw their little sister into a trash can, I assumed reprimanding the boys myself and then speaking to their parent would be enough, as the little girl was neither hurt nor upset, and even tried to throw the smallest of her brothers in the river later on in the day. As it turned out, handling it myself was not the proper way to go about it. The mother was not upset, by any means. Apparently, this type of incident occured all the time, but the camp had a specific manner of approaching such incidents. When the parents of other children found out, they were very upset and concerned. The camp was not able to say they had handled the situation and it would not happen again; they could not say it because of me. I apoligized, of course, and did not get in trouble; it was a small mistake. But I never want to make a mistake like that again.
Thus, in approaching the writing project for Project Angel Heart, I am a little more wary than I was before, though I am still very excited. I've tried to become more aware of that I am doing a service for them, at their discretion, but I still have some reservations about the project. I am worried if I will actually be able to serve them in a productive manner, since I know so little (relatively speaking) of the organization, and if in some way, I may hurt them by just taking up their time. As we are all beginning our own writing projects, I wonder about the reservations the rest of you have, if any, and why you have them. In the same way, perhaps the best way to alleviate such concerns is recognizing past mistakes (our own and others') and learning from them. What mistakes do you think service-learning students most commonly make and why do they cause harm? In what ways can we avoid making the same mistakes?
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Most of the mistakes I made was when I was in a situation with smaller children and they misbehaved and I was not sure how to react. It is hard to know when and where to draw the lines and how to discipline them when you are not their parent or even an adult (most of my volunteering experience was during high school so I was not 18 yet). I think when people are put in situations where they haven’t been told how to act appropriately, they make mistakes because they don’t know better or maybe they are really nervous. These mistakes can cause harm by making the organization look bad. We must all understand that we are representing an organization and that we must uphold the values and promises we made. There are bound to be moments of uncertainty and we will do our best to make the right decisions. If we do not make the right decision, this will create an avenue of new learning and next time we will know how to do it right. I feel like if we were working with children that require a lot of contact there would be more room for error, but with our limited contact with these individuals we should not be to nervous. We should still be aware and ready to act honorably though.
ReplyDeleteLooking after young children while still being a young adult yourself can be a tricky. It is hard to know what reprimands the children are used to receiving, especially when often at times the are apt to manipulate you into thinking otherwise. I have always been a big babysitter in my community and usually managed to keep everything very low key , without too much drama between the children. However they are young and they don’t understand things and often at times fights can be sparked between siblings. Especially the two boisterous little boys that live next to me. I was unaware of exactly what actions they could get away with according to their own parents. Being a babysitter, one has to allow what seems to be most logically acceptable in their mind and discuss it with their parents after the fact.
ReplyDeleteI think the most common, and perhaps most harmful, mistake made by young adults in service learning situations is being insensitive or ignorant. I know that more often than not these young adults have only good intentions, but sometimes they are just not informed or educated enough on the work they are doing, and say or do hurtful or offensive things. Of course, I think everyone has one of these moments at least once in their life.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I volunteered at a week-long science camp for middle school students. I, along with many of my classmates, were junior counselors for the camp. The age gap between the middle school students and us was obviously not a huge one, and it was not extremely easy to make the younger kids listen to us as their elders. One of my classmates who was also a junior counselor made a mistake one day of becoming too chummy with one of the sixth graders. My classmate was playing around with the younger kid and showed the sixth grader how to perform a chokehold on other people. This is of course not a great idea when you are in the position to administer the safety and behavior of younger children. The sixth grade boy ran around the rest of the day putting his friends and peers in chokeholds, and the senior counselors, who were much older than the junior counselors, were not very pleased. The situation created a liability for the science school. My classmate never intended to be a negative influence, he was just not quite properly informed on how to and how not to create relationships with the middle school children. This type of mistake happens all the time, but in some situations the outcome can be much more harmful than it was at the science school.
There is always the risk or awkward and unsure situations when working with kids and teenagers only slightly younger than ourselves. I have definitely made some mistakes when working as a counselor on a ranch. I have become too close with the kids I was supposed to be supervising, and then therefore became nothing of an authority figure. Mistakes of this kind can absolutely leave you feeling bad about yourself and question your role, good or bad. But in volunteering for Project Angel Heart, I don't think many mistakes of this variety will occur. We are only interacting with the clients for two hours on a Saturday afternoon, and we see each individual client for a matter of minutes. And then we spend some time in the kitchen, where there is no interaction of that variety. We are simply following orders from a chef. I think being aware of possible mistakes is wildly important, and shouldn't be taken too lightly. But I also think that the prospect of this type of mistake at Project Angel Heart shouldn't get us too stressed out.
ReplyDeleteI think the biggest mistakes young adults make is having a bad attitude. Young adults have a tendency to be a little egocentric and I think this can upset people at times. I can imagine that a lot of teenagers complain and have a bad attitude when they are asked to do volunteer work and this can have a negative effect on adults or other people working there.
ReplyDeleteJust the other day at Project Angel Heart the main chef was telling me about some high school students that were working in the kitchen the day before. She said they were constantly texting each other and didn't really seem interested in helping. Consequently, they didn't get very much done and the next day the crew at Project Angel Heart was slightly behind in what they needed to get done.
I think it is very important for teenagers to try and have a good attitude towards what they are doing. Not only does it make it more fun, but it is also impressive to other people.
MaryKate-
ReplyDeleteI believe that in order to make a difference or a positive change, one must occasionally make mistakes like these and learn from them. This not only helps us grow as individuals, but also prepares us for future situations. Everyone makes mistakes, so why not try and gain something so you can be prepared and comfortable in the future?
When working with younger children at camp, I had a very unclear understanding of what was considered appropriate behavior and how to deal with conflicts. At what point was I supposed to intervene when the children had an argument and how should I deal with problems? I was so worried that I would say something or do something wrong that I became very reserved and I didn't make the connections that service work is supposed to provide. Now I know that to really be influential to an organization or even an individual, you must have no reservations. To get everything out of the situation, you have to be aware and willing. I think many students have this problem. Instead of embracing their volunteer time, they merely do what is asked of them and don't make further connections or relations. I am excited to do my food prep shift tomorrow at PAH so that I can take advantage of this opportunity and learn as much about the organization, its volunteers, and its clients as I can.
I may be one of the few teenagers who has not experienced babysitting, that may be because of the responsibilites it entails. Dealing with younger children can be a tricky situation and I don't have the largest amount of patience. And making a wrong choice can set into motion a string of bad effects. I believe civic engagement work can be similar. I am not an expert on PAH and feel this may be a downfall in my writing assignment for them. Therefore I am going into this writing assignments with precautions. I am hoping to learn all I can about PAH and contribute it do my writing. I hope my writing is beneficial to the organization. I very much understand MaryKate's precautions and also relate to them.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest mistake when doing public service was not being knowledgeable of the service I was going to do. This happened when I was going with a youth group to work with little kids at a school in South Philadelphia. Originally I thought that there would be activities that we could do with them and other adults there to chaperone. After arrival we were told that it was up to me and my fellow peers to provide the entertainment. This was not what we had expected and the group of us was a little overwhelmed. Although we tried our best, it was obvious that most of the kids were bored and uninterested. That was pretty disappointing, knowing that had we been prepared, it would have probably been more enjoyable for the kids.
ReplyDeleteI certainly think it is very important to be aware of the mistakes you might make as a student entering into a new environment, especially a non-profit like Project Angel Heart. But I would urge all of us not to be paralyzed by such awareness. For me, the question of intent and communication are ways to prevent mistakes from becoming harmful. That is, our intent to do good, and our willingness to ask questions and hear the answers go far in creating the kinds of relationships between the university and the communities outside of it that enrich us all.
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