In The Service Of What? The Politics of Service Learning
By Joseph Kahne and Joel Westheimer
Premise-
· service learning
· morals
· citizen
· strategies
· input
· helping
· caring
· values
· relationships
· society
· goals
· accomplishment
· direct
· indirect
· reach
· interact
· beliefs
· volunteerism
· compassion

Author’s Argument-

Kahne and Westheimer argue that the whether or not the act of service learning is based moral, intellectual, and or political grounds is a issue grabbing the attention of teachers, policy makers, and academicians who take seriously the idea that learning and service reinforce each other and should come together in American’s schools.
Evidence-
1. “ In addition to helping those they serve, such service learning activities seek to promote students’ self-esteem, to develop higher-order thinking skills, to make use of multiple abilities, and to provide high order thinking skills, to make use of multiple abilities, and to provide authentic learning experience…”
2. “ These categories can help clarify our understanding of the possible relationships between service learning activities, their outcomes, and the goals that motivate their design.”
3. Various goals of service learning- “ ..we create opportunities for changing our understanding of the other and the context within which he or she live” and “ They stress the importance of civic duty and the need for responsive citizens.”

I felt that this piece of literature was somewhat difficult to read and that it’s main points could have been made much clearer with a more organized format. The various topics jumped around while simple idea where expand to make seem more complex resulting in difficult understand. I thought the ideas where interesting in that I would have never though about service learning in such a complex and depth focus. I found the topic random in a sense and shocking in another that this issue was even one discussed formally. I did not enjoy this piece from what I got out of it, so I look forward to the discussion where I hope to take a lot more from it.